Serkan Tatoglu managed to save his four children from the deadly earthquake that struck their home in southeastern Turkey. The family is safe now, but his six-year-old daughter keeps asking him, “Dad, are we going to die?”
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For a week, Kahramanmaras province – 1.1 million people before this natural disaster – was like something out of a sci-fi movie, with its ruined buildings, ambulance sirens blaring and coffins left by the side of the road.
So many horrific scenes for the children who survived the February 6 earthquake that killed 32,000 people in Turkey, according to a preliminary report.
“My children were badly affected by the earthquake,” Serkan Tatoglu, whose wife and children aged six, 11, 14 and 15 found shelter in a tented village next to the Kahramanmaras city stadium, told AFP.
AFP
Children with psychologist Sueda Deveci.
“I lost ten family members. My children are still unaware but the youngest is traumatized by the aftershocks. She keeps asking, ‘Daddy, are we going to die?’
“I don’t want to show them the bodies. With my wife we hug them and tell them “everything will be fine”.
Hilal Ayar, 25, is also very worried about her seven-year-old son Mohamed Emir: “He’s not doing well mentally, he can’t sleep.”
“Emergency Guidelines”
Sueda Deveci, a psychologist from the Turkish branch of the NGO Doctors Worldwide who is seconded to Kahramanmaras, is confronted with parents who are themselves traumatized.
“One mother confessed to me: ‘Everyone tells me to be strong, but I can’t do anything, I can’t take care of my children, I can’t even eat’.”
Some children don’t seem to be aware of the earthquake, she says, while three draw next to her.
“I don’t talk to them much about the earthquake. We let them draw and we’ll see how much it shows up in their drawings,” she explains.
“Child-centric policies urgently need to be prepared,” said Esin Koman, a child rights specialist currently working in Kahramanmaras province.
In her opinion, children adapt faster than their parents, but what is necessary must be done for them to overcome this ordeal.
Cihan Celik, a psychologist, shared on Twitter a message he received from a paramedic volunteer who was dispatched to the earthquake area.
During an evacuation, children were gripped by fear: “The injured children asked several times on the way: ‘Where is my mother, where is my father? Are you kidnapping us?'”
“Calls Dropping”
Turkey’s Vice President Fuat Oktay said 574 children rescued from the collapsed buildings were found unaccompanied. 76 of them were returned to family members.
A group of about 200 volunteers, including psychologists, lawyers and doctors, set up coordination centers in the ten provinces hit by the earthquake. Their goal: to identify unaccompanied children and entrust them to their families with the help of the police.
“We’re receiving a flood of calls,” said Hatice Goz, a volunteer from the coordination center in Hatay province (south).
On site, it also identifies families searching for their children and collects information about their age, physical characteristics and address before forwarding them to the coordination centers.
“We have committed teams. They constantly analyze all the information obtained by comparing it with hospital records,” explains Hatice Goz.
“When I looked at the list yesterday, the number of missing children we were informed of reached 180. We have handed over 30 to their families,” she says.
Children retrieved alive from the rubble are taken to the nearest hospitals without necessarily being accompanied by a parent. But, she says, “if the child can’t talk, the family can’t find them.”