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Feature
'Rather be here than under the rubble': Türkiye's earthquake survivors struggle with homelessness
In Southern Türkiye, the people evacuated from damaged and destroyed buildings are now living in camps. In one tent village in the city of Adana, the young and older are trying to come to terms with being homeless.
Published 12 February 2023 3:15pm
Updated 12 February 2023 6:22pm
By Claudia Farhart
Source: SBS News
Image: Mihrac Erbova, a government sociologist who works at the Adana makeshift camp, and his son. (SBS News)
In the Turkish city of Adana, dozens of people who once had homes are now living in a makeshift tent village for displaced residents.
Around the village, parents are still trying to work out how to explain what’s happened to their children.
A four-year-old girl is happily playing with a doll and pulling faces when SBS News visits the family in the village.
Cevher and his daughter in the village in Adana, Türkiye.
“She thinks everything is a game right now,” her dad, Cevher, tells SBS News.
“She thinks we’re camping and she’s having fun. Because she sees her grandfather and grandmother, she thinks this is kind of like a holiday.
“My daughter sometimes asks, ‘When are we going to go back home? I say, ‘This is our home for now’,” he adds.
The Turkish government has sent a team of psychologists and sociologists to the camp. They play games and colour in with children aged six and under.
One of the sociologists, Mihrac Erbova — whose family are also new residents of this camp for displaced people — says they’re holding group therapy sessions.
“This obviously affected the kids very badly. All of the children feel afraid, anxious and stressed,” Mr Erbova says.
“To distract them, this is what we do.”
One of the girls at the table named Duru comes over to show SBS News her drawing — a picture of her home before the earthquake hit it.
“This is the sun, house, tent, two clouds, the chimney of the house, and this is the grass,” she points.
Her father Nurullah bends down to hug her.
Six-year-old Duru with her dad Nurullah. Both have been moved to the tent village in Adana, after the devastating earthquake in Türkiye.
“When the psychologists are here, she is happier. But once we get in the tent, she goes back to a bad mood.”
It’s not only the children who are struggling. Adults like Donay say they haven't showered for days. She copes by praying.
“I escaped with debris falling from the sky,” she says.
“I use my beads. I constantly pray to Allah to ward off all the evil things, to survive.
“Still, I’d rather be here than under the rubble.”
Donay says she copes by praying for survival with the help of her beads. Source: SBS News
Some residents desperately need to return.
Dozens of families have been moved to the tent village in Adana, Türkiye, after the devastating earthquake left thousands dead and many displaced.
“He takes 11 medicines, but we only have four of them here, and the rest are missing,” Ms Toprak says.
“They put yellow tape in front of our house. Everything we need is in there, but we can’t even enter the front garden.
“Is this suffering going to continue? We don’t have bathrooms. It’s very hard. It’s indescribable.”
Serife Toprak, a mother who's been displaced by the earthquake in Adana, Türkiye.
“Everyone thinks: ‘What if it happens again? When is it going to happen again?’ There are rumours spreading, like the next one is going to be a 8.0 magnitude, a 7.0 magnitude, or, on the 13th of February, it’s going to happen again.”
SBS News journalist Claudia Farhart filed this report from Adana, Türkiye.
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