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.
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
Support this important cause by creating a personalized fundraising page.
Start a Fundraiser
