Urgent Earthquake Response in Turkey and Syria

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.