One month has now passed since two powerful earthquakes struck Turkey and north-west Syria on 6 February. Since then, Caritas’ emergency response efforts on the ground have been led by local organisations in Anatolia in Turkey, and in the Syrian cities of Aleppo and Lattakia. In Turkey alone, it is estimated that 44,200 people have lost their lives and an additional 108,300 people are injured. Turkish authorities report around 164,300 buildings have collapsed or are heavily damaged in 11 provinces throughout the country.
Giulia Longo, a Caritas staff member working in Turkey
Giulia Longo, a Caritas staff member working in Turkey, says “it has been a difficult, hard month. This suffering and tragedy has touched all our staff personally. Some of us have lost our homes, our friends, our churches, others are still sleeping in their cars. However, every day we decided to get up and take this pain as fuel for a change we believe in, a change that is the mission of Caritas, to always help the last and the forgotten even within this tragedy.” She also expressed how Caritas staff and volunteers have felt the warmth of their Caritas colleagues from different cities who have come to support their work in Anatolia.
Since the morning of the earthquake,
Caritas in Anatolia have been working around the clock to provide critical supplies such as emergency shelter materials, blankets, hygiene kits, medical supplies, food and kitchen items, to affected people. Last month, education support activities commenced in the local diocese and in tents. “Every day dozens of people knock on the gates of the diocese to ask for help… we do our best to continue to carry on a spirit of charity. We feel supported by the solidarity that comes from everyone at this tragic time that has deeply affected our lives,” a Caritas worker in Anatolia said. In Mersin, the Catholic Church has set up a facility in which there are currently 80 earthquake-affected internally displaced persons staying. In February, Caritas representatives from different countries participated in a meeting at the apostolic nunciature in Turkey with the nuncio, Archbishop Marek Solczyński, and Archbishop Claudio Gugerotti, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches, to discuss the importance of international support for humanitarian initiatives in the country.
Distribution of food in Mersin.
Within the first week of February, a Listening Center hotline was also established to provide support and assistance. “There are many, too many forgotten people even in this drama. We try to visit the families, especially the forgotten and isolated ones. Listening to their needs we try to help them and to be together in the face of this tragedy. The other day, for example, in addition to food and basic needs, a child asked us for toys, he and his sisters had lost everything,” a Caritas volunteer in Anatolia said.
As a result of the powerful earthquakes and aftershocks, thousands of families have been left displaced and without a home. In neighbouring Syria, one woman told a Caritas volunteer: “The architect told us to evacuate immediately. The walls did not fall but had big cracks. They told us that another earthquake would destroy the house and might harm the kids, so we went out to protect them”.
Caritas in Aleppo and Lattakia are distributing food baskets, water, hygiene kits, mattresses and blankets, scarves, shoes and toys in a number of temporary shelters set up in affected areas of the country to help meet the basic needs of those in need of humanitarian support. Prior to this natural disaster, around 15.3 million people in Syria were already in need of humanitarian assistance due to ongoing conflict and political unrest in the country since 2011.
To date, it is reported that at least 5,900 people have been killed and 10,900 injured in Syria as a result of the earthquakes and aftershocks.
Anyone wishing to support the work of Caritas organisations in Turkey and Syria can do so through the Caritas Internationalis website: https://www.caritas.org/earthquake-syria-turkey/