Urgent Earthquake Response in Turkey and Syria

Project Report | Jan 30, 2024
One Year Later: Impact Update

By Katherine Coe | Individual Giving Officer

By funding locally-led organisations, ActionAid’s response to the February 2023 earthquake in Turkey and Syria has been community-led and highly effective, reaching 197,211 people through search and rescue operations, provision of food andshelter, mental health support and creation of safe spaces for women.

The role of young people as first responders has been critical in saving lives and supporting recovery. In the aftermath of the earthquakes, youth volunteers worked tirelessly with our partner Violet to pull survivors from the rubble and reached a staggering 6,330 people through search and rescue operations and emergency medical and mental healthcare.

At a hospital funded by ActionAid and run by our partner Violet, more than 27,933 people displaced by the earthquakes have received urgent medical carefrom a dedicated team of nurses, midwives, and doctors. Of these, 14,801 are women and girls.

Clean water and sanitation are essential to our everyday lives. Over the past one year we have provided clean water, hygiene kits and washing facilities to over 37,667 people. In 15 temporary camps, we have ensured that women and girls have private facilities, which they can use without the risk of harassment or assault.

Supported by a team of dedicated youth volunteers, our youth-led partner Violet provided a lifeline to hundreds of traumatised children living in remote areas through Mobile Mental Health units.

Kareemat is a partner organisation of ActionAid, it is a women’s shelter and community centre that supports Syrian women. Kareemat provides social, educational and in-kind assistance to all women, especially to those who have fled Syria and have been subjected to forms of injustice, exploitation, oppression and violence. Kareemat also works with former female sex workers by offering them a space to learn vocational and language skills and spend time with other women.

Najlaa is the founder of Kareemat. Najlaa is a Syrian refugee and fled Syria in 2015. When she arrived in Turkey, she saw how many women were struggling without financial support, so with money she had borrowed, she set up a knitting group creating items to sell, and from this the organisation Kareemat was created. Since the earthquake, Najlaa and the women at the Kareemat shelter have faced many challenges,

Najlaa tells us: “Women carried the biggest burden. Our team as women, we carried the biggest part of it. We were suffering from PTSD and were completely shaken. Yet we still needed to care for our families, to support and cook and clean.”

Thank you for your continued support of this critical work.

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Oct 3, 2023
An Action-Aid funded Hospital in Syria

By Katherine Coe | Individual Giving Officer

Dear ActionAid supporter,

This October marks eight months since a devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake rocked the southern part of Turkey and northern Syria, claiming more than 55,000 lives. The earthquake left more than 2.3 million women and girls without access to proper healthcare, making them especially vulnerable.

Since February 2023, with your support, ActionAid has reached more than 100,000 people in Syria with life-saving humanitarian assistance. In addition to being one of the first organizations on the ground to coordinate search and rescue operations alongside local partners, we have provided access to mental and physical health services through the Ain al-Bayda Hospital – an ActionAid-funded facility. Members of the hospital staff, like midwife Kathwar (pictured below carrying out a pre-natal scan), have been working against all odds to deliver urgent medical care to as many women and girls as possible.

So far, the 36-member team has managed to care for more than 5,000 women and girls.

Women like Hadeel, a mother of four children, who was one month into her fifth pregnancy when the earthquake struck. Due to ongoing health issues, she depended on pre-natal monitoring services, often requiring a full day of travel to get to a clinic. With the new hospital in proximity and a dedicated team of nurses, midwives, and doctors (many of whom are women themselves) working to protect Hadeel’s fundamental human right to health, she was able to continue receiving the care that she needed.

Hadeel, pregnant with her fifth child, says she finds it easier to talk to women on the hospital staff.

Your last donation of helped us increase local capacity to provide healthcare to women and girls affected by the earthquakes.

Thank you for your work during this critical time.

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Jun 6, 2023
Rebuilding after the Earthquake

By Katherine Coe | Individual Giving Officer

Jumana, 11, is living at an ActionAid safe center.

We are appreciative for your support of this project. I’m writing to share some updates about ActionAid’s earthquake response in Turkey and Syria.

The earthquakes have pushed millions who were already reeling from 12 years of conflict into cramped camps and temporary shelters, with little privacy, protection, sanitation, medical aid, or emotional support. In North-West Syria families rebuilding their lives after the devastating earthquake are dealing with grief, loss, and now rocketing prices of essential items.

With your support, ActionAid has raised over 5.3 million dollars to support our emergency response. With these funds, Action Aid's partners have and are continuing to deliver shelter, food, water, and cash assistance, supporting the medical response, and providing emotional and psychological support to women, children, and young people. Local women are leading an emergency community kitchen and hub that serves six community shelters (3,530 people) and offers a safe space for people to gather. Women-led organisations are responding to local needs by equipping shelters, distributing food items and dignity kits, and establishing safe spaces to service more than 6000 women and girls in Syria.

People in Syria are exhausted after years of tragedy and need long-term solutions that ensure their protection, help their physical and mental health, and secure their livelihoods. Efforts to build back must also future proof communities from further disasters of this scale, through early warning systems and disaster preparedness. ActionAid will continue working with local partners, led by women and young people, to shift power to communities, supporting their capacity, participation, and voice as key actors in Northwest Syria. We will be working with local partners to understand how best to support communities who are constantly adapting to multiple shocks and developing resilience to them.

Your commitment to human rights makes a difference. It has never been more crucial. Thank you again for your solidarity and support.

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