Six months after the earthquakes, access to essential services such as clean water, sanitation, and healthcare remain a major concern in Turkey and Syria. People’s livelihoods and access to food have been severely disrupted, with many affected by mental health conditions like post-traumatic stress disorder.
“Although half a year has passed since the devastating earthquakes, recovery is not yet complete,” explains Action Against Hunger’s Regional Director for the Middle East, Chiara Saccardi.
“Action Against Hunger continues to work in both countries to provide humanitarian assistance, early recovery and long-term rehabilitation programmes.”
What’s the situation in Turkey?
In Turkey, the earthquake affected 11 provinces in the south and southeast – killing 50,000 people, injuring more than 100,000 and destroying nearly 300,000 buildings. Nearly three million people were forced to flee their homes, and more than 1.5 million are still living in informal settlements.
Many of these families can’t get the most basic necessities and have no stable source of income. Around 4 million children are in urgent need of humanitarian support.
What’s the situation in Syria?
In Syria, the earthquakes killed more than 6,000 people and injured 12,000, –leaving severe damage to infrastructure and residential areas. The disaster has affected a total of 8.8 million Syrians.
The increased pressure on public services and sectors such as healthcare, housing, and water and sanitation systems has compounded the crises the country was already facing due to the ongoing conflict, the Covid-19 pandemic, fuel shortages, an economic recession, a cholera outbreak, and a prolonged drought.
More than 15 million Syrians need humanitarian assistance right now.
How is Action Against Hunger helping?
In the past six months, alongside our local partners, we’ve been able to reach a total of 265,166 people in Turkey and Syria.
We’ve responded by:
- providing more than 48,000 people with safe water, clean toilets and good hygiene
- reaching more than 20,000 people with health and nutrition services
- supporting 100,000 people with good food and livelihoods programmes
“In the aftermath of a disaster, parents can no longer feed their children adequately due to stress. Children need to have adequate nutrition because it can affect them later in life. In our baby-friendly space, any mother can come in for a range of services and support.”
In Syria, Action Against Hunger is providing life-saving support in the health and food sectors. We’re rebuilding health centres, and providing medicine, equipment, and training for health workers. We’re also increasing access to food in rural communities.
In Aleppo, we’re supporting the health system by supplying essential medicines to hospitals, distributing hot meals, building shelters and providing psychological care. We have also improved sanitation in informal camps for those who have lost their homes.
“The school was full of families who had lost their homes. We couldn’t find a room, so we had to sleep in the schoolyard. To make things a bit better and to have some privacy, we used blankets to create tents instead of using them for sleeping. Therefore, I’m very grateful for the aid that we received from Action Against Hunger, as they provided us with a sleeping kit that contains (mattress, pillows, blankets, flashlight) which gave us comfort.”
Working together with engineers trained by Action Against Hunger, we carried out structural assessments on over 107,000 buildings – offering crucial insights for rebuilding. As the journey to recovery unfolds, we’re rebuilding damaged infrastructure and bolstering health services to help those most in need.
Want to know more?
You can read the full report about our emergency response in Turkey and Syria here: