One week after two deadly earthquakes hit Turkey and Syria, UNICEF fears many thousands of children have been killed. Even without verified numbers, it is tragically clear that numbers will continue grow.
In Turkey, the total number of children living in the 10 provinces hit by the quakes was 4.6 million children. In Syria, 2.5 million children are affected.
“Children and families are in desperate need of additional support,” UNICEF Spokesperson James Elder said in a Feb. 14 briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva. “Many of our local partner organizations’ staff and first responders have been killed, injured, displaced and their offices and equipment destroyed. Everyone, everywhere needs more support. More safe water. More warmth. More shelter. More medicines. More funding.”
Families with children are sleeping in the streets, malls, schools, mosques, bus stations and under bridges, staying with their children in open areas for fear of going home, unable to assess the structural damage and potential impact of likely aftershocks. Tens of thousands of families are exposed to the elements at a time of year when temperatures are bitingly cold, and snow and freezing rain are common. Reports rise daily of the number of children suffering from hypothermia and respiratory infections.
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In Syria, UNICEF’s immediate lifesaving response includes providing safe drinking water, warm winter clothes, medical and nutritional supplies. In Turkey, UNICEF is dispatching winter clothes for children; family, baby and mother hygiene kits; family travel hygiene kits and blankets. UNICEF is also procuring sleeping bags, power banks and sleeping chairs across the 10 affected provinces.
Child protection remains a top priority. “Given the catastrophic, and ever-increasing, death toll, it is clear that many, many children will have lost parents in these devastating earthquakes,” Elder said. “In Turkey, UNICEF, in coordination with the Ministry of Family and Social Services, has deployed social workers to the hospitals to help identify unaccompanied and separated children and make sure their basic needs are met. In addition, together with the Ministry of Family and Social Services, UNICEF has launched 10 new hotlines in the affected provinces for unaccompanied and separated children.”
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UNICEF is also working with partners to provide children affected with critical psychosocial and mental health support. For many of these children — particularly in war-affected Syria – this is trauma on top of trauma. To quickly expand the reach of psychosocial support for children, UNICEF has trained close to 70 trainers of trainers on psychological first aid, while mobilizing longer-term mental health and psychosocial support, and providing hundreds of recreational kits that will provide tens of thousands of children with items to help them cope with the impact of the earthquake through stimulation, learning and reestablishing a sense of normalcy.
In Syria, Elder added, “Every child under the age of almost 12 has known nothing but conflict, violence or displacement. Some children have been displaced six or seven times. And more than 1.7 million registered refugees from Syria live in the 10 affected provinces in Türkiye, and an estimated 811,000 of them are children. Years of violence, destruction and deteriorating economic conditions have made living conditions unbearable. This would appear [to be] the international community’s last chance to show solidarity to these millions of children.”
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Top photo: In Kahramanmaraş, Turkey, a little girl holds onto her father’s leg five days after a pair of deadly earthquakes hit Turkey and Syria. © UNICEF/UN0781452/Ölçe