Turkiye Earthquake Relief Efforts

Project Report | Sep 28, 2026
Narin, Mustafa, and 2.7 Million Others: They Rebuilt, You Made it Possible

By Pinar Ozyurek | Director of Philanthropy

Dear TPF Donors,

More than three years after the February 2023 earthquakes, the TPF Earthquake Fund has moved through every stage of recovery alongside the communities it was created to support.

In the first days and months after the earthquakes, the priority was clear: save lives and meet urgent needs. TPF rapidly mobilized its nonprofit network to support emergency relief, shelter, food, healthcare, search and rescue, protection, psychosocial support, and access to education.

As needs evolved, so did the Fund. Our grantmaking shifted toward longer-term recovery, helping communities return to education, rebuild livelihoods, access mental health support, and regain a sense of stability and community. More recently, our focus has increasingly turned toward resilience, supporting locally led solutions, sustainable livelihoods, stronger local capacity, and preparedness for future disasters.

Together, more than 100,000 donors from 116 countries helped raise $20.7 million. Since the Fund’s inception, TPF has granted approximately $17 million through192 grants to 95 nonprofit partners, reaching more than 2.7 million people across Türkiye.

None of this would have been possible without you. Thank you for standing with the people in need when it mattered most — and for trusting TPF to carry your generosity all the way to those who needed it most.

With gratitude,

Team TPF

Children Finding Their Place in a Changing City

Adyaman was deeply affected by the February 2023 earthquakes, and the city is still being reshaped. As container settlements close and families move into newly built neighborhoods, children are navigating unfamiliar streets, new routes to school, and changing public spaces. For them, recovery is not only about rebuilding homes. It is also about feeling safe, connected, and able to belong in the city taking shape around them.

With your support, City Detective: City, Environment and Art Association’s Playful Adyaman project gave children a way to explore these changes and have a say in what comes next. Across 42 workshops, children mapped their surroundings and used drawing, observation, model-making, movement, and other creative methods to identify challenges they encountered in their daily lives, from safe mobility and places to play to accessibility, lighting, green spaces, and public transportation.

“Finding Her Place in the City”

Narin is 12 and has been connected to Hayat Park since it was built in 2024. She became one of the children who kept coming back, participating in most workshops and spending time in the park even when no activities were taking place.

At first, collective decision-making was not always easy for her. Narin sometimes struggled to negotiate different opinions and make decisions together with others. Over time, however, the project team watched her become increasingly comfortable expressing her own views, listening to different perspectives, and finding a way forward together.

And Narin’s ideas were not confined to the park.

The observations and proposals developed by children like her were collected into Children’s Recommendations for Adyaman’s Reconstruction Process, addressing issues they encountered in their changing city, including mobility, play, school surroundings, accessibility, shade, lighting, and municipal services. Those recommendations were then taken directly to the Mayor of Adyaman and relevant local authorities. Children’s views were also turned into posters displayed inside public buses, carrying their ideas beyond the workshops and into the everyday life of the city.

“Making His Ideas Visible”

Mustafa found his place in this changing city differently. The team first met him in 2025 during workshops held with children living in container settlements. He especially enjoyed embroidery and making things with his hands. But what stood out was what he did with what he created: Mustafa wanted to explain it.

He talked about his work, shared the ideas and proposals behind it, and encouraged other children to join in. His experience captured another side of the project: children were not simply being asked to make things or attend workshops. They were learning that what they created and thought about their surroundings could be shared with others and made visible.

That visibility began reaching beyond the children themselves. During the final months of the project, Adyaman Municipality approached City Detective and asked the organization to adapt the City School program for municipal childcare centers. A pilot for younger children followed, providing an early sign that the approach developed through the project could continue within local public institutions.

For Narin, Mustafa, and hundreds of other participants in Playful Adyaman, the project was about more than learning about their city. At a time when so much of Adyaman was being rebuilt around them, they were discovering that they could have a place in shaping it too.

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Jun 2, 2026
Thank You for Not Looking Away

By Pinar Ozyurek | Director of Philanthropy

Dear TPF Donors,

Three years ago, the earth shook —and left millions across Türkiye facing unimaginable loss. But in the days, months, and years that followed, something remarkable happened: you showed up. Your generosity has been a lifeline. It has rebuilt more than structures — it has restored dignity, sparked hope, and quietly transformed countless lives in ways that will echo for generations.

Together, we have raised more than $20M and granted $16,888,311 to 96 local and national organizations, supporting 187 impactful projects that have reached millions across Türkiye. This report is our way of bringing you into the lives your generosity has touched — and sharing the profound impact you have made possible together.

Healing Minds, Restoring Hope

In Hatay — one of the regions most severely affected by the earthquakes — children, families, and individuals carry wounds that cannot be seen. The grief of losing loved ones, the anxiety of displacement, the silence of a child who no longer knows how to play.

With your support, World Human Relief's Hatay UTOMER Project has provided trauma-focused mental health and psychosocial support to survivors through individual psychotherapy, family counseling, and community workshops. By March 2026, the project had reached 270 beneficiaries — including 133 individuals in long-term psychotherapy and 137 participants in psychosocial workshops — exceeding every original target.

"Finding a Path Through Grief"

She was five years old when the earthquake took her father and two brothers. Trapped under rubble for more than a day with her mother, and then separated from her while her mother received medical treatment, she returned to a world that looked nothing like the one she had known. As months passed, she began asking questions no child should have to ask. Her mother, heartbroken and overwhelmed, struggled to find the words.

Through 12 sessions of play therapy at Hatay UTOMER, this little girl found something precious: a safe space. Using play, storytelling, and therapeutic activities, she began to put words — and then feelings — to her loss. Her therapists watched as her emotional expression deepened, her engagement grew, and she found the courage to talk about her family. Her journey continues. But the progress she has made is a testament to what becomes possible when children are not left to grieve alone.

Looking ahead, World Human Relief will continue expanding trauma-informed care across the earthquake region, strengthening community partnerships and ensuring long-term access to mental health services for the most vulnerable — because healing takes time, and no one should face it without support.

Children Building the Future

In the aftermath of disaster, children are often the last to be asked what they need — and the first to feel the effects of decisions made without them. In Adyaman, where earthquake reconstruction is reshaping entire neighborhoods, the City Detective's Playful Adyaman project did something quietly revolutionary: it asked children what kind of city they wanted to grow up in. By May 2026, the project had engaged 849 children across workshops and a Children's Day festival, giving them the tools to map their neighborhoods, identify challenges, and develop real proposals for safer, more inclusive public spaces. Their ideas were compiled into a policy brief and presented directly to the Mayor of Adyaman and municipal departments.

"From Survivors to City Makers"

Following the earthquakes, the children of Adyaman lost more than their homes. They lost their parks, their safe routes to school, the familiar corners of their neighborhoods. As cranes and construction crews moved in, no one thought to ask the children what they had lost — or what they dreamed of building.

Playful Adyaman changed that. In workshops, children mapped their streets, named the dangers they faced, and designed solutions. Their policy brief — full of ideas for traffic calming, accessible sidewalks, shaded pathways, and child-friendly spaces — was presented to city leadership. For many of these children, it was the first time they understood that their experiences matter. That their voices can shape the city around them. That they are not just inhabitants of the future — they are its architects.

"Reimagining Safe Routes After Disaster"

As families moved from temporary shelters into new neighborhoods, children found themselves navigating unfamiliar streets — speeding vehicles, broken sidewalks, crossings without markings. Getting to school had become an act of courage.

In workshops, children didn't just describe these dangers — they designed solutions: pedestrian-friendly streets, traffic calming near schools, improved lighting, accessible paths. Their proposals for one school's surrounding streets were reviewed by the Mayor, who committed to exploring implementation.

Playful Adyaman will continue expanding into schools and underserved communities, supporting a Children's Advisory Council model, and working with local authorities to bring children's ideas to life. Because a city rebuilt with children in mind is a city built for everyone.

Thank You

These stories — of a five-year-old finding words for grief, of a child reclaiming her voice, of hundreds of young people shaping the city they will grow up in — are your stories too. They exist because you chose to give.

The road to recovery in earthquake-affected Türkiye is long. But with every project funded, every community supported, and every life reached, we move further down that road together. TPF remains committed to investing in local organizations, community-driven solutions, and the long-term resilience of the people and places your generosity has touched.

With gratitude,

Team TPF

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Feb 3, 2026
TPF Turkiye Earthquake Fund 3rd Anniversary Report

By Pinar Ozyurek | Director of Philanthropy

Dear TPF Donors,

Three years have passed since the devastating earthquakes of February 6, 2023—yet their impact continues to shape daily life across southeastern Türkiye. From the very first hours, you stood with affected communities. Thanks to your generosity, Turkish Philanthropy Funds was able to respond immediately and remain present long after the global spotlight faded. To date, more than $20.7 million has been mobilized through the TPF Türkiye Earthquake Fund, with $16 million granted to 93 trusted local organizations, reaching 2.7 million people across the region. This sustained commitment—now spanning more than 1,000 days—has made it possible not only to respond, but to accompany communities through the long and uneven journey of recovery.

As we mark the third anniversary, recovery in Türkiye has entered a new and more complex phase. Emergency needs have given way to deeper, long-term challenges: restoring livelihoods, supporting mental health, rebuilding education systems, and strengthening the social fabric that enables communities to thrive. In response, TPF has intentionally evolved its earthquake strategy—shifting from rapid relief to a systems-focused, data-driven, and community-led approach. Today, our work centers on strengthening local capacity, investing in long-term well-being, and supporting the institutions and people who will shape recovery for decades to come.

This strategic shift reflects a clear belief: recovery is not about returning to what was, but about building forward. Our updated approach prioritizes mental health and psychosocial support, education and safe spaces for children and youth, economic opportunity, and services for people with disabilities—while also investing in the strength of local civil society itself. By working in close partnership with local organizations, and by creating pathways for co-funding, shared learning, and collaboration, TPF is helping build a more resilient and connected recovery ecosystem.

We are honored to share with you the TPF Türkiye Earthquake Fund – 3rd Anniversary Impact Report. This report is more than a record of grants and numbers; it is a reflection of what your trust and generosity have made possible. Within its pages are stories of children finding joy and safety again, teachers rediscovering purpose, families rebuilding dignity, and communities reclaiming connection and hope.

Thank you for believing in this work, for staying the course, and for helping communities in Türkiye not only recover, but build forward with confidence, dignity, and agency.

With warmest regards and deep appreciation,
Team TPF

Links:

TPF Turkiye Earthquake Fund 3rd Anniversary Impact Report

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