One year after the devastating earthquake, Caritas Turkey interviewed Gülsüm, Kamile and Hanife, three women living in temporary shelters who dream of a better future for their families with a proper house and income.

One year after a magnitude 7.8 earthquake hit Turkey and Syria on 6 February 2023, local Caritas organisations, supported by the entire Caritas network, continue to help the local population in dire need. Time has moved on, but progress with rebuilding has been slow, and people like Gülsüm, Kamile and Hanife say they feel forgotten but grateful for Caritas’ support.

Gülsüm

Gülsüm and her family faced many challenges when fleeing Afghanistan to seek refuge in Turkey over ten years ago. Tragically, they faced further devastation when the earthquake struck on 6 February 2023 at 04:17 local time, leaving them homeless and without resources. 

“We fled Afghanistan and came here to Hatay. We worked here on a farm; back then, the children were younger and I wanted them to go to school so they wouldn’t grow up ignorant like us, but they couldn’t go because they didn’t have passports.” Gülsüm explaines that she went to the local authorities’ immigration office to get her documents but was never successful.  

During the earthquake, her husband and her four children were trapped under the rubble for hours. She asked for help since everything she had was left in the rubble. However, she found out that her family was not entitled to receive any help since they did not have Turkish residency or ID numbers. Gülsüm lived with very little help coming from some family members until she met Habibe, a seamstress who started a textile laboratory thanks to the financial support of Caritas. Since, they have been working together and Gülsüm has been able to improve her income. She dreams of living in a proper house with a private bathroom. At the moment, they live in a tent and have no foreseeable plans to be moved to a better accommodation.

Kamile

Kamile, a young woman with dreams of marriage and a future, found her life shattered by the earthquake. The loss of her home and her father’s death left her family in dire need of help.  When her house in the southern region of Ovakent was destroyed, the Turkish aid agency AFAD gave her family a tent where she still lives with her mother and siblings who are 7, 6 and 3 years old. Before dying, her father received a wheelchair from Caritas and hygienic supplies.  

“In the first days of the earthquake, there was a lot of help, but we didn’t get anything,” remembers Kamile when meeting Caritas Turkey staff. “Those aids did not reach us, no one brought them. Our neighbours gave us a heater, thank God. We pulled some blankets and pillows out of the wreckage of our own home. We lost everything, our clothes and belongings. I couldn’t even list everything missing from our lives. We don’t have a house. We have no income; our lives are turned upside down. We have nothing.”

Hanife

“My house on the third floor was destroyed in the earthquake. I was so frightened; I couldn’t go outside for a long time. I have five children; my husband is unwell. Well, he is a substance abuser.”

Hanife’s story is one of resilience in the face of personal problems added to the general adversity. Despite her husband’s struggles with substance abuse and the loss of their home, she strives to provide for her five children. Hanife is determined to secure a better future for her family; she relies on the help of her mother and sister to educate her older daughter. “I started working as a seamstress thanks to Habibe after the earthquake. I used to make a living by sewing clothes,” she explaines.

Caritas response 

It is important that silence does not fall on this tragedy and the consequences still suffered by the population. Unfortunately, we are still not out of the emergency. The number of displaced people is high, and rebuilding will take time and the help of everyone.”

Monsignor Paolo Bizzeti, President of Caritas Turkey and Apostolic Vicar of Anatolia

In Turkey, the national Caritas and Caritas Anatolia, supported by Caritas Istanbul and Izmir, have been active from the first moments despite the damage to their facilities. The emergency response initially focused on distributing food aid and hygiene kits and providing shelter. This then extended to improving the living conditions of displaced families and ensuring that temporary accommodation had the necessary equipment, such as fans, refrigerators, wood stoves and electric heaters. By December 2023, Caritas Turkey had distributed over 6,280 meals, 4,422 food parcels, and 5,201 hygiene items.

Caritas Turkey will continue to work beside and for the people living in the most vulnerable conditions in the affected areas. Among them Gülsüm, Kamile and Hanife, but also thousands of other undocumented migrants, refugees and widows often left behind.