Disaster

REPUBLIC OF TURKEY

PRIME MINISTRY

DISASTER AND EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT PRESIDENCY

(AFAD)

With the purpose of relocating disaster victims into the container cities, works have being intensely continued.

Three months after two earthquakes hit Van province, eastern Turkey, survivors are trying to get back to normality. Children are back at school and shops and markets are open again. But most people are still living in tents or metal containers, and it is difficult for them to recover from their traumatic experiences.

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), in collaboration with the Turkish organization Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly (hCa), is helping people cope through a mental health program.

UN and UNICEF delegation that visited Erciş district of Van, examined the container city of Turkish Red Crescent, constructed with the campaign of the newspaper of Hürriyet. UN and UNICEF delegation also came together with the earthquake victims living in the container city.

302 human impact disasters claimed 29,782 lives; affected 206 million and inflicted record economic damages of $366 billion in 2011

Geneva, 18 January 2012 – For two consecutive years the long-term disasters trend has been bucked by major earthquakes which claimed thousands of lives and affected millions in both 2010 and 2011, according to new statistics published today by CRED and the UN office for disaster risk reduction, UNISDR.

AAR JAPAN (Shinagawa, Tokyo = Yukie OSA, President) has decided to resume its relief activities that had been previously carried out in eastern Turkey in response to the earthquake that occurred on October 23rd.

WAM Abu Dhabi, Dec 15th, 2011 (WAM) -- As per the directives of President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and with support from Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the UAE Red Crescent has dispatched a cargo plane carrying relief materials for the victims of the recent earthquake that hit eastern Turkey.

Hundreds of people had died or wounded and many were displaced in the disastrous earthquake.

In the first hours following the October 23 earthquake in the Van region of Turkey, Doctors Worldwide Turkey (DWWT) reacted immediately and deployed its Search and Rescue team composed of 31 volunteers who worked round the clock for 4 days.

Subsequent to the search and rescue phase we implemented an integrated medical support operation to meet the needs of the survivors. All our projects have been designed according to the Earthquake Crisis Centre’s plan of action to optimize efficiency and to coordinate actions with other organizations involved.

TURKEY: KEEPING WARM

The distribution of 200 UMCOR-funded heaters came like a “miracle” to earthquake survivors in the villages of Ermisler, Akcift, and 17 remote settlements outside the city of Van in Turkey, according to UMCOR’s implementing partner there, International Blue Crescent (IBC).

Families who received the heaters had lost all their belongings, including livestock and harvests, when earthquakes rocked the region on October 23 and November 9. Most are living in makeshift barracks, tents, or prefabricated compounds near their destroyed or damaged homes.