How CARE responded in Turkey and Syria
CARE Turkey is strengthening its preparedness for response after the earthquake by prioritizing the delivery of essential items to people seeking refuge. To date, CARE and its partners have responded to some of the worst-affected areas in Turkey and Syria, providing life-saving humanitarian assistance to more than 230,000 people by providing goods or services to help people weather cold and hot weather and find temporary shelter after losing everything. .
CARE Turkey will also continue its existing cross-border operations to respond to the most affected areas of northwest Syria, where teams and partners are trying to deliver blankets, food, mattresses, tents and other non-food items to people in need. in severe weather. More than 60% of northwest Syria’s 4.6 million residents are internally displaced and now face further displacement due to the earthquake.
CARE Turkey hopes to cooperate with Turkey’s Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency [AFAD] Providing essential supplies to people in temporary shelters across Turkey where people have sought refuge, including schools, mosques and other government-allocated temporary shelters.
CARE Turkey is currently assessing the extent and severity of damage to civilian infrastructure and establishing the safety and security of personnel and their families as well as partner organizations based in Gaziantep and northwest Syria.
“We have been hampered by extreme weather conditions, including snow in south-east Turkey and north-west Syria, which make it very difficult for us to access roads, warehouses and supplies that we need right now”. Care Turkey Country Director Sherin Ibrahim said. “We continue to coordinate with other humanitarian groups, including UN agencies, to gather as accurate information as possible at this time. But right now we need immediate help in the form of financial aid to ensure that those who are cold can stay warm, those who are hungry can eat and those who are already malnourished can survive. Obviously, our priority at this stage is the people of south-east Turkey and north-west Syria, who suffered the most from one of the most devastating earthquakes and more widely affecting the region in recent times.
*Last updated March 6, 2023