Aid collection centers call for continuity of relief

ISTANBUL

Though the needs in the earthquake zone have increased along with the earthquake that occurred on Feb. 20 in Hatay, the number of aid and volunteers is decreasing day by day.

Following the earthquakes that occurred on Feb. 6, the country had mobilized to provide several aid materials to the earthquake zone, as volunteers had also participated in the sorting and packaging efforts in the provincial aid collection centers.

However, there has been a considerable decrease in both the amount of relief and the number of volunteers.

With the earthquake that hit Hatay on Feb. 20, as the needs in the region have increased, a call “Do not cut off your donations” came from the officials of empty aid centers.

Just two weeks after the earthquakes that caused great destruction in the 11 southern provinces, the Hatay-centered earthquake doubled the need for tents and containers in the region as some survivors still cannot receive accommodation services.

Tents, containers, food, mobile toilets, stoves and hygiene items are still at the top of the list of urgent needs in the earthquake zone.

Similarly, in the coordination center in the Yenikapı district established by the Istanbul Municipality to provide support to the disaster area, the number of volunteers and aid have significantly decreased, while donations came to a standstill.

The volunteers of Yenikapı last week were the athletes of the municipality’s women’s and men’s ice hockey teams.

Women’s ice hockey team captain and national athlete Tuğçe Melis Demir said, “Basic needs run out quickly. Therefore, our assistance to our citizens in the earthquake zone should continue.”

She invited everyone to participate in the relief efforts in the aid collection centers.

Officials at the aid collection center in the northwestern province of Kocaeli stated that though up to 10 trucks of aid were delivered to the earthquake zone from their provinces every day for the first two weeks, now this number has fallen to two.

On the other hand, some volunteers continue to extend helping hands to the quake survivors in the southern provinces.

Converting a sports facility in Kahramanmaraş’s Dulkadiroğlu district into a relief center, Istanbul’s Beyoğlu Municipality established a laundry, bread bakery, soup kitchen and social market as a campus within this sports facility.

Beyoğlu Mayor Haydar Ali Yıldız stated that they are working especially for women and children, saying, “We have planned this area as a campus to meet all kinds of needs of mothers and our children together.”

“When a family comes here, it is able to meet all its needs. The food from our soup kitchen is served in the dining hall at this facility and three meals are distributed at different points of the city with three vehicles. Our social market meets all kinds of needs of quake survivors. We also moved the playgroups that we set up in the schoolyards in Beyoğlu here.”

Stating that they also opened a city consisting of 200 containers to the victims, the mayor emphasized the continuity of aid.

In order to meet the shelter needs of the quake survivors, 9,239 tents and containers and 2 tons of wood were sent from the northwestern province of Kırklareli.

Considering the urgent needs for the mobile toilets in the region, volunteers from the northwestern province of Bilecik sent 18 toilet and bathroom vehicles and 50 container houses to the quake zone.