Urgent Earthquake Response in Turkey and Syria

Project Report | Jan 28, 2025
ActionAid's Reach In Numbers

By Ehab Elsawaf | Senior Major Gifts Officer, ActionAid USA

Thank you for your support of this project, I’m writing to share some updates on ActionAid’s work following the earthquake in Turkey/Syria.

In response to the ongoing crisis, our response has focused primarily on protection, livelihood, and health. These efforts have included providing aid to displaced populations, ensuring access to necessities like food and water, and offering medical care in Northwest Syria, including Idlib and Aleppo.

Programs supporting livelihoods through economic assistance and job creation have also been implemented to stabilize affected communities. Protection activities aim to safeguard vulnerable groups such as children and women from violence and exploitation.

ActionAid’s response (through August, 2024), cumulatively reaching 319,724 people:

47,466 people reached through protection services.This includes 1,165 people (560 men and 605 women) who received assistance through body removal, ambulatory services, and hospital referrals.
126,377 people (73,618 men, 52,759 women) reached with extensive medical services and kit distributions, including services provided at hospitals in Idleb, covering maternal and obstetric care, pediatric care, sexual and reproductive health services, and health and protection awareness.
2,058 medical kits distributed in Syria and 987 medical kits in Turkey.
7,973 people reached through search and rescue and support operations.
41,090 people reached through food and nutrition support, including:
4,004 people residing in collective shelters who received hot meals through a women-led community kitchen.
15,353 people supported through Multi-Purpose Cash Assistance (MPCA), enabling them to meet their diverse needs and priorities in the aftermath of the earthquake.Through MPCA, affected people were empowered and provided with the flexibility to prioritize their most urgent requirements based on their specific circumstances.
33,927 people (18,550 females, 15,785 males) provided with winterization support, including heating items and dignity kits.
788 people reached through livelihoods support, including vocational training, in-kind grants, and agriculture training.
37,667 people reached with WASH services support (20,163 females and 17,504 males reached).
This includes access to Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) facilities for 10,939 people (5,818 females, 5,121 males) and the distribution of 26,728 dignity and hygiene kits.
9,083 people were supported with tents distributed to earthquake affected families, and shelter items including floor mats, mattresses, emergency flashlights, jerry cans, plastic sheets and sleeping bags.

In the coming months, ActionAid will continue to prioritize health and protection efforts. Protection activities will be scaled up, with a particular focus on safeguarding vulnerable groups, including children, women, and the elderly, from violence and exploitation. We will also focus on supporting livelihoods through economic assistance and job creation programs to help communities rebuild and stabilize.

We will continue to share updates as our work continues. Thank you.

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Jun 28, 2024
Your Impact In Numbers

By Ehab Elsawaf | Senior Major Gifts Officer

Jan 30, 2024
One Year Later: Impact Update

By Katherine Coe | Individual Giving Officer

By funding locally-led organisations, ActionAid’s response to the February 2023 earthquake in Turkey and Syria has been community-led and highly effective, reaching 197,211 people through search and rescue operations, provision of food andshelter, mental health support and creation of safe spaces for women.

The role of young people as first responders has been critical in saving lives and supporting recovery. In the aftermath of the earthquakes, youth volunteers worked tirelessly with our partner Violet to pull survivors from the rubble and reached a staggering 6,330 people through search and rescue operations and emergency medical and mental healthcare.

At a hospital funded by ActionAid and run by our partner Violet, more than 27,933 people displaced by the earthquakes have received urgent medical carefrom a dedicated team of nurses, midwives, and doctors. Of these, 14,801 are women and girls.

Clean water and sanitation are essential to our everyday lives. Over the past one year we have provided clean water, hygiene kits and washing facilities to over 37,667 people. In 15 temporary camps, we have ensured that women and girls have private facilities, which they can use without the risk of harassment or assault.

Supported by a team of dedicated youth volunteers, our youth-led partner Violet provided a lifeline to hundreds of traumatised children living in remote areas through Mobile Mental Health units.

Kareemat is a partner organisation of ActionAid, it is a women’s shelter and community centre that supports Syrian women. Kareemat provides social, educational and in-kind assistance to all women, especially to those who have fled Syria and have been subjected to forms of injustice, exploitation, oppression and violence. Kareemat also works with former female sex workers by offering them a space to learn vocational and language skills and spend time with other women.

Najlaa is the founder of Kareemat. Najlaa is a Syrian refugee and fled Syria in 2015. When she arrived in Turkey, she saw how many women were struggling without financial support, so with money she had borrowed, she set up a knitting group creating items to sell, and from this the organisation Kareemat was created. Since the earthquake, Najlaa and the women at the Kareemat shelter have faced many challenges,

Najlaa tells us: “Women carried the biggest burden. Our team as women, we carried the biggest part of it. We were suffering from PTSD and were completely shaken. Yet we still needed to care for our families, to support and cook and clean.”

Thank you for your continued support of this critical work.

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