Humanitarian support for the Turkey Earthquake victims : By SEWA Europe
- vrushalikodgire
- 6 days ago
- 3 min read
6th of February 2023. The whole world got that shocking news of massive earthquake in Turkey. The most effected places were Kahramanmaras and Hatay provinces in southeastern Turkey. These were 7,7 and 7,6 magnitude quakes.. After some days the official statement was released by the press that , the earthquake devastation death toll to be nearly 50 thousand people.
Sewa Europe rose to the occasion to provide the relief for the effected victims. The works were carried out in 4 different phases..
➢ Material distribution through own network
➢ Food for life – participation
➢ Groundwork – direct support to the camps
➢ Turkish embassy – help center
1. Material distribution through own network.
As soon as the news about the earthquake broke out, the Sewa Europe convened a meeting. In this meeting, a decision has been taken to give full support to Turkey both online and on the ground. The fund and material collections were initiated immediately.
Sewa international was able to start our humanitarian works by starting a self unit through Mr. Deepender in Adiyaman, Turkey . Mr. Deepender is having a restaurant business there. He coordinated the Sewa works initially. Did various jobs like
❖ Food distribution in camps
❖ Medicines
❖ Daily consumer items
❖ Thermal flasks
Mr. Deepender visited the camps and distributed items. Also through his restaurant connections, he donated free food for the needy ones there.
2. Food for life – participation
Food for life program was initiated by the ISKCON group in Turkey. ISKCON is mainly focused there activities in Istanbul and Ankara. When the earthquake news came out, ISKCON group went to Adana and Hayat and started the program Food for life.
Sewa Europe also participated in this program by spending some money there. The food for life program was running in Adana and Hayat for nearly one month.
3. Groundwork
In order to co-ordinate the activities in Turkey, a 3 member team went to Turkey on 07th April, the easter day. The team , comprising Mr. Vinod Balakrishna Pillai, Mr. Nimay Pillai and Mr. Prakash Narayanan went to Adana and met the Sewa coordinators there.
After reaching Adana, the volunteers visited the region of Hatay, which was the prime location of the earthquake destruction.
Hatay was hit by a 6.4-magnitude earthquake and a second measuring 5.8 two weeks after the first earthquake. After the earthquakes, people here were battling against the clock as the temperature plunged to become very cold which made the further helping mechanisms to more risk.
As we observed, some of the cities and towns were completely destroyed in the Hatay region.
Second day, we visited the city Osmaniye. Almost all buildings which were more than 2 floors were razed to ground. Almost all the shops and institutions were still closed which were using the multi storied constructions. People have been moved to different parts of the country in their respective camps.
On the last day we went to Kahramanmaraş and met with some officers and people in the camps and affected areas.
4. Turkish embassy in Germany
Sewa Europe, during that week , also contacted the Turkish embassy in Karlsruhe Germany. Embassy informed the location where they collect the materials for the humanitarian support.
Collection point : Am Grossmarkt 10 76137 Karlsruhe
As per the embassy the materials like Container house, Mobile toilet, bed, winter tent, sleeping bag, heater was needed at the camps in Turkey. Sewa Europe will try to get those things to handover the effected people.
5. Media Reports
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