On February 6 and 7, two earthquakes of magnitude 7.8 and 7.6 killed at least 50,000 people in southern Turkey and more than 7,000 in northwestern Syria. More than 100,000 buildings collapsed. Since then, Global Humanitaria has delivered basic goods to Hatay, the region of Turkey most affected by the earthquakes, and has visited the area to learn some of the survivors’ stories and their most pressing needs.
One of the families we were able to visit at their current shelter is Lale’s. She lost her husband in the early hours of February 6, when the building where she lived with most of her relatives completely collapsed. Both she and her brothers, nephews and sisters-in-law were able to flee. Her husband was unable to do it due to the physical problems that he had and that prevented him from escaping before the building collapsed.
Over the next 72 hours, Lale’s family tried to pull her husband out of the rubble alive , but a lack of help and tools prevented them from doing so. They were not able to recover her body until two weeks after the catastrophe.
Lale and his family spent the first three days out in the open . Like hundreds of thousands of others, they had no shelter to go to and no safe buildings left standing. The constant rains and aftershocks from the earthquakes further compromised the health of the survivors .
Finally, and unable to find a tent, Lale and seven other members of his family, including two children aged 8 and 10 and a baby, chose to settle in a greenhouse with ten other people . A construction that put her life at serious risk due to the number of people crowded into it and the high temperatures that are reached inside. They lived like this for 2 months until the baby became seriously ill and a doctor posted in the area got them a tent to improve their conditions.
Even so, the absence of tents and safe spaces for survivors forces Lale and his relatives to continue going to the greenhouse every day to have more space than is available in the shared tent . A situation that aggravates the problems of infections and diseases caused by the lack of showers, sinks or clean clothes.
Lale’s family spent three months wearing the same clothes they survived in, under the rains, the first three days after the earthquake.
Global Humanitarian in Samandag
In Hatay alone, more than 21,000 people lost their lives and more than 24,000 were injured. In this area of southern Turkey, in towns like Samandag (121,109 inhabitants) practically 100% of their buildings collapsed. All of this made its population improvise camps where dozens of people crowd together sharing precarious tents that keep everything they have. They are crowded on both sides of the main road, as close as possible to the help that barely arrives in vans. The rains, the lack of hygiene products, toilets, showers or clean clothes put the health of the population at risk.
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