International Blue Crescent Relief and Development Foundation (IBC) and its partners, Catholic Relief Services (CRS) and D=FCzce Municipality have completed the houses provided free to 168 families whom were the victims of 1999 earthquakes. The construction of D=FCzce Beyciler Self Help Housing Project has been one of the biggest achivements in the region.
On 4th of December the houses were handed over to the beneficiaries with a ceremony. The administrative staff of IBC, Recep =DCker ( President), Muzaffer Baca (Vice-President), Ugur G=FCngor

by Arzu Ozsoy in Ankara
"Everyone forgot about us, but the Red Cross" says Nevzat Gocer, Kocaeli Province Planning/Coordination Manager, talking about the Avluburun Water Treatment Project (WTP).

In the second half of 1999, north-western Turkey was struck by two massive earthquakes in less than three months. The first, centred on the industrial city of Izmit, killed over 17,000 people and injured 44,000 in August. Three months later, another 845 people perished in a second tremor.

The legacy of the Marmara earthquakes

Fifty-seventh session
Item 21 (a) of the provisional agenda*
Strengthening of the coordination of emergency
humanitarian assistance of the United Nations
Emergency response to disasters
Report of the Secretary-General**

Summary

Following the devastating earthquakes that hit Greece and Turkey in 1999, the Governments of the two countries agreed to establish cooperation in disaster response. In November 2001, Greece and Turkey signed a bilateral protocol to establish a joint standby disaster response unit comprising personnel drawn from governmental and

By Sheryl Feldman
Statistical and systemic analyses of disaster response are becoming more sophisticated by the day.=A0 Excellent as they are, they tend to lack first-hand evaluations of relief efforts from its "users," those community members who experience the disaster and are instrumental in recovery, but who also experience the well-intended efforts of others to help them.

Between February 10 and 19, 2002, five grassroots women who survived the 1999 Marmara earthquake in Turkey traveled to quake affected villages in Gujarat (2001 quake) and Latur (1993 quake)

This Programme Update is intended for reporting on Annual Appeals.
Appeal Target: CHF 21,559,000
Period covered: 1 November - 31 December; last Programme
Update (no. 5) issued 21 December 2001

"At a Glance"

Appeal coverage: 100.8%

Outstanding needs: None

Operational Developments:

During this reporting period the humanitarian situation in Turkey has been affected by continuing tremors/ earthquakes, cold weather conditions, heavy rainfalls and snowfalls, economical/social developments and new changes in the Turkish Civil Code.

Press release: EXT 2001/046

Luxembourg, 14 December 2001 - The European Investment Bank (EIB) is lending EUR 185 million (1) for works in Turkey to improve living-conditions in Eskisehir, in Mid-Anatolia, and for private sector, with special emphasis in the regions devastated by the earthquakes in 1999, as part of the rehabilitation and reconstruction works. The EIB funds are provided as follows:

EUR 110 million goes to the Greater Eskisehir Municipality (EBB) for the construction of a new light rail system (LRT) and the rehabilitation of amenities in conjunction with the river Porsuk

Silver Spring, Maryland -The Orta Relief Project, undertaken by the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) following an earthquake in June 2000, has been completed. Approximately 7,300 people live in the city of Orta, and the province has another five towns and 22 villages.
In response to the severe earthquake, ADRA Turkey offered disaster relief assistance to the Orta area. ADRA Turkey replaced several crucial community elements that had been damaged extensively or destroyed by the earthquake. First, ADRA rebuilt the city's drinking

By Obi Emekekwue
The excitement is always palpable each time a mobile health unit pulls into one of Turkey's disaster stricken communities. During a recent visit to a rural community badly affected by the 1999 earthquakes, an elderly lady was so overcome with emotion after receiving care from one of the on-board doctors that, without thinking, she planted a kiss on the doctor's cheek and hugged her, all the time clutching the boxes of vitamins she had just received.

"We are overwhelmed," said a doctor. "People are so pleased that we go to their neighbourhood

by Arzu Ozsoy, in Izmit
The wounds inflicted by the violent earthquake which shook the Marmara region of Turkey on August 17, 1999 have not fully healed yet. According to official figures, the quake killed 16,986 people and injured 23,781. Some 40,000 people who spent 12 months in tent cities in Yalova, Kocaeli, Sakarya, Bolu and Duzce are still living in prefabricated settlements. The hardest-hit city was Izmit (Kocaeli), where nearly 9,500 people died. On November 12, 1999, a second violent tremor shook Duzce, leaving more than 1,000 people dead, and 3,800 injured.