With the death toll now reaching over 42,000 in Turkey and around 1,400 in Syria, the Caritas network is assessing the needs on the ground, in order to coordinate efforts to better help those displaced by the strong earthquakes and aftershocks that struck the region this February.
“We need to be very careful about what we do to make sure that we’re assessing the needs that are there, and I think the main thing is that we’re making sure that we’re reaching out to the right people,” Caritas Internationalis Emergency Response Team (ERT) Coordinator John Coughlin said in an interview on EWTN’s news programme ‘In Depth’.
Caritas’ emergency humanitarian response efforts in both Turkey and Syria continues thanks to the combined work of several teams from local diocesan Caritas, as well as Caritas staff and volunteers from around the world including countries such as Italy, Germany, Poland and Lebanon.
In Iskenderun, Caritas is working with the Diocese to provide food packages, water, hygiene supplies and warm clothes and blankets for the affected population in Turkey. Giulia Longo who is working alongside volunteers in Turkey said: “These people are affected and traumatised by what’s going on. But actually the staff is still working with the youth group and volunteers”.
When the first earthquake struck on February 6, the Diocese of Anatolia suffered severe damages to its cathedral and its office building. Caritas in Anatolia distributes hot meals for lunch and dinner in the city and have also helped implement a mobile kitchen in collaboration with a German NGO in the Antakya district which distributes around 2,200 hot meals per day for displaced people.
In Anatolia, volunteers from the Chaldean Church of Tokat are also assisting Caritas with in-kind distributions. In Mersin, a group of Polish psychologists are carrying out psychosocial services with interpreters for displaced persons.
Not long after the disaster struck, a Caritas Youth team from Lebanon travelled to neighbouring Syria to help those displaced due to the destruction of several homes and buildings. “Caritas Lebanon remains here to support anyone in need wherever they are, despite all challenges and limited resources, we are here to provide aid and to ease the pain,” said Head of Caritas Lebanon Youth Department Peter Mahfouz.
Funds received by Caritas will be used now and in the coming months for food, medical supplies, shelter and other essential supplies to meet basic human needs. These funds will also serve to meet long term needs to help families go back to a more stable life.