Turkey appeal No. 01.57/2001 situation report No. 4

The months of July and August were highlighted with a series of activities to mark the second commemoration of the massive earthquake disaster, which devastated north western Turkey in 1999. Those who lost their lives in the earthquake were commemorated with great pain. The Hare Psycho-social Support Programme (PSP) Centre in Izmit organised a commemoration day with speeches and a slide show prepared by the volunteers in the prefabricated settlement of Middle East Technical University. The Amindos PSP Centre in Avcilar organised commemoration activities together with 60 volunteers. During the week of 17 August 2001 the Izmit region faced heavy rainfall, which caused no loss of life but extensive loss of property.
period covered: 1 July - 31 August 2001

The context

In the second half of 1999, two massive earthquakes struck northwestern Turkey, the country’s most densely populated region and industrial heartland. The first occurred on 17 August 1999 and was centred on the industrial city of Izmit, leaving 17,100 people dead and a further 44,000 injured. Responding to the Turkish government’s plea to the international community for immediate assistance, the International Federation launched a preliminary appeal, followed by a full appeal for CHF 65 million, on 8 September 1999. Two months later, a second major quake occurred in the Bolu/Duzce region, on 12 November 1999; the death toll reached 845 and nearly 5,000 people were injured. An estimated 400,000 buildings either collapsed or were badly damaged by the two earthquakes. Thousands of aftershocks and moderate tremors have occurred since August 1999, not only in northwestern Turkey but also in all quake-prone regions of the country. The socio-economic impact of the 1999 earthquakes will be felt in Turkey for years to come. The disasters have left a long-term legacy, severely damaging the country’s infrastructure and having a devastating effect on the lives of the affected population. Unemployment, physical disabilities and psychological trauma are among the most common problems still faced by Turkey’s population.

Latest events

A series of 123 tremors, measuring 3.0 to 5.4 on the Richter scale, were recorded during this reporting period. According to the officials, no serious damage or injuries were reported. The Eastern Anatolian fault line was shaken on July 10. The epicentre of the quake was Pasinler township of Erzurum and its magnitude was 5.4 on the Richter scale. 12 tremors took place after the quake. The magnitude of the tremors varied between 3.0 - 3.4 on the Richter scale. There was no serious damage in the province while around 121 people injured themselves by jumping out of windows, but most injuries were light. A total of 45 persons were taken to hospital.

Another minor earthquake measuring 4.0 on the Richter Scale has shaken the region of Osmaniye in southern Turkey on August 9, followed by another one measuring 4.4 on the Richter scale, which shook eastern Hakkari province on August 12. There were no casualties or financial damage reported in either province. On August 26, a moderate earthquake measuring 5.4 on the Richter scale jolted Yigilca township of Duzce. There were not any reports of casualties or damage, but the quake caused panic among residents in Duzce.

The country also suffered from heavy rainfall, with 70 dwellings and workplaces inundated by torrential rains in the Tokat province on August 19. In the meantime, ground floors of hundreds of dwellings were inundated due to torrential rains in Izmit on the same day.

A considerable number of people who spent 12 months in tent cities in Yalova, Kocaeli, Sakarya, Bolu and Duzce are still living in prefabricated settlements. There are still nearly 40,000 quake survivors who live in prefabricated settlements. 95 percent of quake survivors who lost their houses in the disaster have been provided with permanent houses which were built by the Ministry of Settlement and Public Works, World Bank and volunteer organisations. However, only less than 25 percent of those people have moved into their new houses. Lack of social areas and low number of people residing in these areas are the factors that discourage people to move to their new homes.

Under the ‘‘Return to Village’’ project, initiated to send East and South East Anatolian villagers to their homes after the ending of terrorism in the region, 77 more families returned to their hometowns. The South East Anatolia Project (GAP) Regional Development Directorate started carrying out two new projects dubbed as ‘Return to Village and Rehabilitation’ and ‘Return to Village and Rehabilitation sub-regional Development Plan’ under the 1999 investment plan.

The National Intelligence Organisation (NIT), police and military forces, separately presented their reports to the National Security Council (NSC) and they stressed that poverty and unemployment had increased due to the ongoing economic program and they also stressed that the low-income people became more vulnerable after the devaluation decision followed by price increases. Surveys revealed that the number of people who committed suicide due to economic problems is increasing throughout Turkey each day. Most enterprises are in loss. Seven of every ten enterprises have reduced the number of workers and they continue to do so. 40 of every 100 enterprises have been closed.

Red Cross and Red Crescent action

The Turkish Red Crescent Societyl

The Turkish Red Crescent Society (TRCS) together with the German Red Cross (GRC) has inaugurated the Bolu State Hospital on July 4. The hospital is one of the two facilities in the area servicing the city’s approximately 75,000 residents. Meanwhile the modern laboratory facility of Erzincan dispensary was inaugurated by the TRCS on July 13.

The TRCS has extended support for the victims of the flood which happened in the Digor district of Kars and the earthquake in Erzurum during the week of July 10. The TRCS sent 40 tents and foodstuffs to 300 families in Erzurum and home appliances to the citizens who were affected by the flood disaster in Digor.

A series of activities were held by the TRCS and the International Federation during the SOS 2001 Emergency Preparedness Exhibition, such as:

• a "Country of Disasters" seminar by Fatih Evren, General Director of TRCS.
• a seminar "how to cope with trauma" by physcologists of the Avcýlar PSP Centre of the International Federation.
• cinevision show about the activities of the TRCS.
• distribution of the posters and brochures, which give detailed information on several projects and activities (FA Training, PSP and etc.).
• distrubution of an exercise kit for children and the pins of Turkish Red Crescent Society.
• presentation of new tents, mobile kitchen and, the emergency communication unit.

There were also mobile blood collection units of TRCS (donated by the Spanish Red Cross) accepting blood donations in the external area during the exhibition.

TRCS together with the American Red Cross (ARC) has inaugurated the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) in Etimesgut Ankara. EOC was designed by using the American Red Cross Disaster Operations Center (DOC) in Falls Church, Virginia as a prototype. Since the initial steps have already been taken by the TRCS and the ARC the EOC will be the brain center for coordination of the TRCS nation-wide emergency planning, preparedness and response activities.

The ARC has already made its commitment to assist TRCS’s staff in using the equipment, developing the training for emergency response workers and giving guidance and financial support to Community Disaster Education provided through TRCS branches.

The German Red Cross (GRC) handed over all responsibilities for the Yenikoy Health and Training Centre to TRCS in July. The TRCS keeps the centre on stand-by for training purposes. In addition it will be ready to be used as a preparedness hospital facility for Kocaeli and Istanbul regions, should a new emergency occur. However, a practical exercise to re-mobilize the facility as a field-hospital still needs to be held and is planned by GRC later in the year.

On July 5, the TRCS sent CHF 10,000 to Peru as monetary aid for 73,500 people who were affected by the earthquake that struck the southern part of Peru on June 23.

The International Federation

Disaster Response Preparedness and Management (DRPM):

During this reporting period the DP Delegate and his team worked together with a member of the Ministry of Public Works and Settlements and a planning specialist of the State Planning Institute in order to produce a country assessment on Turkey.

Under the public awareness project the DP team gave their full support to TRCS during their activities in SOS 2001 Emergency Preparedness Exhibition. The DP and Info/Reporting team produced a brochure on the Turkey Delegation in order to give the public a better understanding of the International Federation and the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement. Further, the team together with TRCS’s training team have designed and printed 10,000 exercise books and school kits for school children. Approximately 4,000 brochures and 3,000 of the above mentioned items and brochures of all three PSP Centres were distributed during the exhibition.

The American Red Cross (ARC) also attended the SOS 2001 Emergency Preparedness Exhibition, and concentrated on emergency management programs and disaster community education programs. Since the ARC has been working on the development of the Istanbul Earthquake Disaster Response Plan, a CD with templates for different types of a Disaster Response Plan has been developed. Meanwhile the ARC has been supporting the development of the country assessment on Turkey for the Country Partnership Report.

At the beginning of July the ARC started implementing the Community Disaster Preparedness Project (CDPP) together with Gaziosmanpasa branch in Istanbul and Izmir branch.

The ARC has developed a Business Plan and a Log Frame for the Earthquake Research Information Center for Humanitarian Assistance (ERICHA). While the ARC has received the first two TRCS staff on permanent assignment to ERICHA, the process of evaluating the Geographic Information Systems, to be installed in ERICHA, has begun. In the meantime funding has been provided for the research commissioned for Istanbul to prepare the risk and hazard mapping of the city and structural inventories at risk in earthquakes.

During this reporting period the ARC has completed the funding and received the results from:

• the Etiology study on morbidity and mortality in Duzce and Bolu from Kandilli Research teams.
• the study of the response mechanism and public information available after the last 5.4 tremor and the identification of distribution channels for emergency information following the quake in Osmaniye from Kandilli Research teams.

The British Red Cross (BRC) Delegate arrived in Turkey July 16. BRC has signed an agreement with TRCS on the 3 year Disaster Preparedness programme for Erzurum branch. Installation of the TRCS’s HF radios purchased by the ARC with the assistance from the International Federation continues. Additional antenna tuners have been ordered and delivered to support installation in buildings with space restrictions. Up to date radios have been installed in 9 of 14 fixed site locations. Installation will be completed by the end of September.

The TRCS has completed the renovation of the new Emergency Operation Centre (EOC) at the Etimesgut Warehouse in Ankara. Financial and technical support for the installation and procurement of equipment for the Centre has been provided by the ARC. The EOC includes a radio room as well as satellite and internet connections to support coordination with TRCS units and field teams and other agencies during response operations. ARC also supported TRCS in developing a prototype for a communications vehicle that was displayed during the opening of the Centre.

TRCS staff attended an NGO meeting on Disaster Emergency Telecommunication, focusing on the usage of same frequencies for VHF and HF radios during emergencies.

Health - First Aid

First Aid (FA)

The Spanish, Italian, and French Red Cross have been working on FA projects. The Italian Red Cross (IRC) signed an agreement with the TRCS on July 2, to implement FA training course at branch level, including 3 branches (Duzce, Eskisehir and Van). The French Red Cross (FRC) has been working on a schedule to continue the FA courses in Istanbul. The FA programme of the Spanish Red Cross (SRC), which is made up of 12+1 courses will be ongoing until the end of 2001, and will take place in the Blood Centre of Ankara.

During this reporting period the courses on Basic FA for the staff of the TRCS Headquarters and Etimesgut Warehouse have started. 4 courses were held with the participation of 80 people. The SRC, together with the Bolu Branch of TRCS, implemented three courses for the Firemen Brigade of Bolu and 51 firemen received their certificates.

In the month of July two new ToT courses were organised by the SRC. So far the total number of trained trainers is 154. These trainers have so far trained approximately 2,000 new first aiders.

The TRCS First Aid Central Team together with the SRC have signed a co-operation agreement with the Middle East Technical University (METU). 15 students will attend the ToT course starting on September 3. Similarly, contact has been taken with the Police General Directorate to initiate a co-operation agreement. On August 29, the SRC held the first meeting with the University of Adapazari representative to initiate the same process with its staff which is a total of 800 people.

In July, the FRC’s support for the FA Training courses in Istanbul continued according to the new project. The FRC established a FA coordination office in Istanbul.Two master trainer candidates from TRCS started to work with FRC in Istanbul on August 10.

In the province of Van, the IRC has made an assessment on TRCS branch and Civil Defense organization and activity. The result has given a very promising response to start the collaboration and the development of the FA Training Project.

A mobile Blood Collection Bus (with 6 beds capacity for collection sessions) was provided from Germany by GRC and donated to the TRCS. Another two mobile units (smaller versions) will follow.'

Community Centres Programme (CCP):

A programme agreement has been signed between TRCS and the International Federation on the Community Centres Programme (CCP), which integrates the Psycho-Social Programme (PSP) and the Social Welfare (SW) Programme. The construction of the Kaynasli Community Centre is proceeding as scheduled. When completed in October 2001, the Centre will function as the first CCP Centre.

As a significant part of the population temporarily moved out of the earthquake area for vacation in the villages of their relatives, service delivery has slowed down in the psycho-social centres during this reporting period. However this was an opportunity to work on the planning of the activities in the centres for the coming season, from September 2001 to August 2002.

Frequency of the participation of the community members in the PSP centres in the months of July and August are as follows:

In the meantime the centres have developed a new registration system during July and August and after having updated the figures, more detailed results will be accessible for the next reporting period.

The activities, which have been developed and implemented by the help of volunteers in the months of July and August include:

Pusula Centre (Düzce):

• Visits to the prefabricated settlement areas
• Establishment of support groups in Düzce State Hospital and City Agriculture Administration in collaboration with German RC.
• Establishment of support groups and individual counselling sessions in Kaynasli Health Unit.
• Establishment of play and discussion group for child hawkers

Amindos Centre (Avcýlar):

• Establishment of Centre (psychology discussion groups on various topics
• Organising the Poetry Days, in which individuals come together and use poetry as a tool in expressing their feelings.
• Celebration of the first anniversary of Amindos

Hare Centre (Izmit):

• Organising nature walks with the volunteers and individuals from the community
• Establishing painting groups for 7-12 years old children
• Organising physical exercises for women
• Establishing a support group for people becoming non-smokers

In order to guarantee the technical support of the programme in a long term perspective, the Federation together with the TRCS will be organising a training programme for Turkish participants with either a professional background in psychology/social work or for trained volunteers working in the centres. The aim of the Training of Trainers (ToT) is to provide a permanent pool of people being able to train new volunteers in using participatory methods to help their community with psychological support and rehabilitating social activities.

The Psychological Support Services supported by GRC continued from Yenikoy Training Centre. The GRC’s support will continue until the end of year 2001.

Education/Training:

Within the framework of an exchange programme with the ARC, 6 TRCS staff have returned from the latest exchange program, which took them to Washington DC and San Francisco to visit ARC programs.

In the mean time ARC has provided support to the TRCS staff from the newly created Search and Rescue Department (SAR) to attend specialized training in Istanbul to help educating the community on Light Search and Rescue (LSAR). The week-long course on Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) is to become the standard training for TRCS within the LSAR. The ARC has also been coordinating the implementation plan for the MoU signed between Istanbul Technical University (ITU) and TRCS to advance the collaboration on CERT training, work at the district level and general training of Relief staff from TRCS.

Logistics:

The Federation’s Logistics Officer held a team training for 6 TRCS staff. The BRC office has been established in Erzurum and a project administrator has been appointed. The priorities for warehouse refurbishment in Erzurum have been agreed by BRC and TRCS. The procurement procedures for the hardware and software needs for the automation of the warehouse and computerization of the branch, dispensary and blood centre are in progress.

BRC’s plans for the next 2-3 months include:

• purchase of the computers for the branch and the start of software training.
• the completion of the warehouse repair and refurbishment.
• the installation of the local area network (LAN) in the Erzurum warehouse and administrative buildings.

starting the process of hazard and resource mapping and developing the training sub-project.

Construction:

The International Federation’s 4 schools and 3 hospital construction projects have been in full progress. During this reporting period the Community Centre in Kaynasli is further added to the site portfolio.

The Derince Primary School has been completed and is ready to receive students starting in September. Two new school construction sites in Kocaeli (Cubuklu and Inkilap) and one in Bolu (Samat) are at the foundation stage.

The Sakarya State Hospital (3,200 m 2 , 2 stores) has been in advanced stages of mechanical installations. A plant room for pumps, boilers, gas and water supplies, has to be built as an annex contrary to being housed in the existing hospital as initially planned. This situation caused an unexpected strain on the budget and the time line. However, early November as completion date is still achievable.

A sister hospital in Duzce with basically the same design as Sakarya, is now in final foundation phase. The last hospital project, Körfez in Kocaeli, has been on the drawing board. The pre-qualification of contractors has started. The planning and design phase for the Mental Health Treatment and Rehabilitation Centre in Yalova will start soon. An MoU including the International Federation construction supervision was signed on August 3.

The construction of the TRCS Duzce Branch building, financed by GRC is progressing slowly. Authorities have approved the architectural plans in August and a tender process will follow. The construction work has been scheduled for the end of September. However, the needed plot of land still needs to be confirmed and allocated. Until then no concrete implementation of this construction is possible.

Branch Development:

A Branch Development workshop was organised by GRC between August 27-29 in Yenikoy Training Centre with the participation of TRCS’s HQ and representatives from the four branches (Duzce, Golcuk, Izmit, and Pendik) and the representatives from the International Federation and the PNSs in Turkey and also the representatives from two branches in Germany. The expected result of the workshop is a 6 month "plan of action" to initiate a first phase of the branch development in the four branches. The experience gained will serve and prepare a second phase to be agreed upon later. The IRC has signed a Programme Agreement on July 2, covering FA service development at Duzce, Eskisehir and Van branches, and also the development of public training programmes, volunteer development and supply of training materials. A public health programme is also being considered by the IRC.

External relations - Government/UN/NGOs/Media

The information/reporting team has done several media pieces during the month of August 2001, as there were a series of activities to mark the second commemoration of the 17 August 1999 earthquake. During the month of August the information and reporting team has worked closely with the ARC reporting delegate. The information and reporting team and the TRCS have worked together on public awareness and public education issues, including designing and printing 10,000 exercise books and school kits for school children. During this reporting period the World Disasters Report 2001 was launched in Turkey and a number of copies have been distributed to PNSs, ministries, embassies, governmental organizations, international humanitarian/relief organizations, NGOs, universities and also news agencies.

Lynette Lowndes
Head
Europe Department

Peter Rees-Gildea
Head a.i.
Relationship Management Department