By Anea E. and Jinny U., grade 9
Kadir Erol, who travelled to Turkey from Germany to help with relief efforts, said his neighbour, travelled from Krefeld 4000 km by car and took three full days to get to Antakya to find his only surviving relative: his grandmother.
A month ago on February 6th, an earthquake with the highest magnitude of 7.8 hit in southeast Turkey and northwest Syria. Resulting in a second one occurring on February 20th which worsened the case of deaths and casualties. Due to the collision of the two tectonic plates, the earthquake resulted in about 50,000 deaths and more than 84,000 buildings were severely damaged and collapsed. In order to further our knowledge about the earthquake and to inform our grade, we interviewed Kadir Erol, who not only is a person affected by the earthquake but also helped out in Turkey.
Kadir Erol (41) comes from Antakya, Turkey which was one of the areas affected by the earthquake but lives in Germany. He works full time in the cybersecurity company called Zscaler as well as part-time in the charity Hummaid e.V, which is a “Non-profit association born in 2019 after a formative trip to Burkina Faso by two friends – with the intention of giving back a piece of happiness.”, as stated in their Instagram bio. MIS middle schoolers hosted a bake to help the people affected by the earthquake and donated money to Kadir’s organisation.
As mentioned earlier most of Kadir’s relatives live in one of the affected areas in Turkey which has caused him to lose seven of his relatives. One of the things that he finds very tragic about this natural disaster is that “such a natural disaster has no regards with family structure”, meaning that no matter how young or old someone might be, they will all be affected in some kind of way. Another thing that was also tragic about this natural disaster to him was that “On day one, you hear about missing a lot of people. On day two, someone is reaching out to you, and you are so glad that they are still alive. On day three, you hear about the people missing and that they were found under the rubble dead.”
When being there Kadir also got the chance to talk to his uncle who luckily wasn’t affected by the earthquake that critically, but when talking to him the uncle said “that the first night you could hear the shouts of people being buried everywhere. The second night as well. And then the shouts were becoming less on day 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8.” This was because the equipment that was there then was not enough to help all the people immediately, causing them to suffocate under the collapsed buildings. He says that the people now are all living in tents because they have no money and all the children there are not able to go to school and have to stay in those tents all day.
In order to help out physically, he took it upon himself and a few of his friends to travel to Turkey. Kadir and his teammates brought thermal cameras that enable to locate people under the rubble and collapsed buildings to rescue them. He initially thought that his help would only “consist out of distributing soup”; however, as soon as they arrived at the airport, they met other people who wanted to help: a Mexican rescue team and a firefighter from Belgium, as they thought working as together is more efficient. They ended up making a group chat where they would be sent a new location every new half hour to locate a person’s body. Additionally, they also provided the local people with food. Therefore, a food truck distributed food to the city as the infrastructure has broken down. And because they have already collected experience about taking care of people by building an orphanage in Burkina Faso for children, it helped them in the affected areas in Turkey.
After seeing the situation in Turkey, he thinks that people will not be able to return to their homes for the next two to three years. With the first year only consisting of moving all the rubble from collapsed buildings somewhere else. The other two years would contain a lot of statical thinking about making the city safer for earthquakes and more stable than the old one because the Turkish people were “Building houses that cannot stand an earthquake,” which is not a very smart idea he thinks because Turkey is always in risk of earthquakes because of its geographical location.
Lastly, Kadir said he wanted to thank the middle schoolers at MIS because they held a bake sale to help to donate money to the earthquake. Through their hard work and care put into their baking skills, they were able to donate 1000 euros to Hummaid e.V, to support on the aftermath of the earthquake. As Kadir states, donations and financial support are the most efficient way to help, since it can help them to achieve their goals such as providing houses for the people outside the damaged city or to build an infrastructure that can stand an earthquake. Another way to reach out is through education, since the children should be able to live in a day-to-day normal life, tutoring them can provide good education for them.
Bibliography:
Welle, Deutsche. “Turkey-Syria Earthquakes: UN Expects Death Toll above 50,000.” Dw.com, Deutsche Welle, 12 Feb. 2023, www.dw.com/en/turkey-syria-earthquakes-un-expects-death-toll-above-50000/a-64677847#:~:text=Turkey%2DSyria%20earthquakes%3A%20UN%20expects,DW%20%E2%80%93%2002%2F13%2F2023. Accessed 27 Feb. 2023.
Omer, Sevil. “2023 Turkey and Syria Earthquake: Facts, FAQs, and How to Help.” World Vision, 21 Feb. 2023, www.worldvision.org/disaster-relief-news-stories/2023-turkey-and-syria-earthquake-faqs#:~:text=From%20the%20Field-,2023%20Turkey%20and%20Syria%20earthquake%3A%20Facts,FAQs%2C%20and%20how%20to%20help&text=On%20February%206%2C%202023%2C%20a,47%2C000%20and%20continues%20to%20rise. Accessed 27 Feb. 2023.
Hummaid e.V. “Hummaid E.V. (@Hummaid_e.v) • Instagram Photos and Videos.” Instagram.com, 2019, www.instagram.com/hummaid_e.v/. Accessed 9 Mar. 2023.