Earthquake in Türkiye & Syria: How To Help
Project HOPE's response to the February 2023 earthquakes in Türkiye and Syria helped more than 500,000 people access health services. Learn more about our response in both countries.
On February 6, 2023, one of the most powerful earthquakes to ever hit Türkiye killed more than 55,000 people and caused a widespread humanitarian emergency.
Within hours, Project HOPE activated its Emergency Response Team to provide essential supplies to the impacted population. After responding to urgent medical needs in the immediate aftermath, Project HOPE coordinated a long-term health and humanitarian response in affected communities in Türkiye and northwest Syria.
In the months since, Project HOPE identified significant need for essential services like health care, mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) services, non-food items, protection services, shelter, and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) services.
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There for Those Impacted by the Destruction
The fallout of the earthquakes had a major effect on communities throughout Türkiye and Syria, especially communities facing vulnerabilities and those impacted by nearly 12 years of war inside Syria. Türkiye is the world’s largest refugee-hosting country and is home to more than 3.6 million Syrian refugees, many of whom lived in tents or unstable buildings even before the earthquakes.
In collaboration with trusted local partners, our team implemented shelter, MHPSS, mobile medical unit (MMU), and WASH programs on both sides of the Türkiye-Syria border.
Project HOPE also provided 70 housing containers to address basic shelter needs for health care workers and first responders in Adıyaman, Kahramanmaraş, and Hatay provinces. The containers continue to support displaced health staff from local hospitals and provide essential services such as a public kitchen and laundry.
In addition to meeting urgent needs, Project HOPE quickly began to pivot to solutions that would support Türkiye and Syria’s long-term recovery. This included installing 50 Solar Water Chlorination Systems (SWCS) to the Adıyaman Provincial Health Directorate to ensure more than 37,000 people living in formal and informal settlements could access clean water. We partnered with the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) and Young Lives Foundation (Genç Hayat Foundation) to provide widespread mental health and psychosocial support services to thousands of people who lost their homes, suffered injuries, and experienced PTSD, including hundreds of young children.
Project HOPE also supported two mobile medical units in Syria that treated more than 8,000 people and delivered enough medicines, medical supplies, and equipment to support primary health care services for 10,000 people over four months. Our local partner in Syria, Syrian Relief and Development (SRD) also supported two primary health care centers that were able to expand their services to include medical health consultations, reproductive health, antenatal care, postnatal care and referrals to advanced levels of care. Together, the two clinics provided support to nearly 25,000 people.
Additionally, Project HOPE has coordinated with local health organizations to deliver much-needed medical equipment including mobility devices, infant incubators, oxygen cylinders, bedside monitors, and essential pharmaceuticals throughout our response.
How Project HOPE Responded to the Immediate Aftermath
Project HOPE provided broad support during the emergency phase of our response, including 23 interagency emergency health kits (IEHKs) that provided Türkiye’s health system with 29 tons of badly needed medical supplies. We also distributed 28,000 hygiene kits, 39 infant incubators, 30 oxygen cylinders, seven generators, and $56,000 worth of medicines to Gaziantep’s state hospital. In total, our partners conducted more than 40,000 medical and mental health and psychosocial support consultations.
One of the most essential needs in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake was shelter for health care workers who were left without homes. Project HOPE provided 70 housing containers to provide immediate safe shelter, 60 of which were placed next to hospitals and social care centers to house doctors, nurses, social workers, and their families. The other 10 containers were placed at a women’s and girls’ safe space in Hatay.
A year after the earthquake, more than 170 people are still residing in these containers, which have provided clean, safe housing while they perform their critical work.
In total, Project HOPE and our local partners reached more than 500,000 people across southern Türkiye and northwest Syria in the first 12 months of their recovery.
Project HOPE’s History of Emergency Response
Project HOPE first started providing medical support in Türkiye in 1987 and has responded to previous crises there including the 1999 earthquake and Syrian Refugee response in 2013-2015. Project HOPE has a long history of emergency response around the world, including previous earthquakes in Haiti and Puerto Rico. Learn more about our history of emergency response here.
How you can help
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Previous Updates
Five months after February’s earthquakes, residents in southern Türkiye and northern Syria continue the difficult task of recovering from the devastation and repairing their communities.
Project HOPE is supporting earthquake survivors on both sides of the border through ongoing shelter, Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS), mobile medical unit (MMU), and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) programs. Our team is also coordinating with local health facilities to provide much-needed medical equipment, including mobility devices, oxygen cylinders, infant incubators, bedside monitors, and solar water chlorination systems.
Project HOPE has registered as a recognized international non-governmental organization in Türkiye, paving the way for a longer-term presence in the country to provide continued support for earthquake survivors.
To continuously and effectively respond to the needs of affected communities, Project HOPE has provided accommodation containers in Adıyaman and Kahramanmaraş to house health workers who have been displaced from their homes. We will also continue to work alongside our local partners to support the community with health support, mental health services, and basic needs around shelter and sanitation.
With a localized base in Gaziantep, Project HOPE is committed to continuing to support those impacted by the earthquakes.
As part of Project HOPE’s commitment to the localization of humanitarian aid in Türkiye and Syria, we have established partnerships with numerous local organizations in both countries and are in the process of expanding that network.
To date, Project HOPE has procured 75 housing containers across Türkiye to address basic shelter needs for displaced populations and responders. Forty units have arrived in Adıyaman as part of the container city currently being constructed. The Project HOPE containers will be located adjacent to University Hospital to support displaced health staff. An additional five containers have arrived in Kahramanmaraş to house health workers identified by the Ministry of Health, and Project HOPE delivered 10 more containers to the Turkish humanitarian organization Dünya Doktorları Derneği in Hatay Province to provide shelter for health workers and essential services such as a public kitchen and laundry service.
Recognizing the need to support earthquake survivors with disabilities, Project HOPE also delivered 150 mobility devices, including wheelchairs, walkers, and crutches to the Gaziantep Ministry of Health. Also, seven infant incubators were delivered to Gaziantep Cengiz Gokcek Gynecology and Pediatrics Hospital, with an additional seven currently en route.
Project HOPE has distributed 3,000 hygiene kits to the Ministry of Family and Social Services in Kahramanmaraş and, through a partner, is coordinating the distribution of an additional 10,000 hygiene kits to camps throughout the affected region.
Get the full update on our response in our latest situation report here.
Extensive rain have caused flash flooding, trapping cars and people and worsening access to basic services. Telecommunication systems are down in some areas and water supply has been heavily compromised.
This torrential rain has impacted both formal and informal displacement settlements for those initially displaced by the earthquakes, flooding tent communities and further compromising the already precarious water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) systems. As a result of this flooding, at least 10 people have died and at least five are reported missing. Among the deceased are five Syrian nationals who drowned in a basement apartment during the March 15 flooding in Sanliurfa.
Get the full update on our response in our latest situation report here.
Project Hope’s Emergency Response Team in Türkiye conducted a rapid needs assessment of camps, health facilities, and other locations serving earthquake-impacted populations in Adıyaman, Gaziantep, and Kahramanmaraş.
After the February earthquakes, over 1.5 million people across Türkiye and Syria were rendered homeless and without necessities. Now, survivors are taking refuge in tents, makeshift shelters, settlement camps, or the remnants of destroyed buildings. To fully recover from this crisis, impacted communities will need coordinated, targeted, and sustained intervention.
Project HOPE has identified the following urgent needs: health clinics and medical supplies; mental health and protection services; access to hygiene supplies and potable water; as well as shelter and essential infrastructure.
Read more about this ongoing crisis in the full Rapid Needs Assessment.
Project HOPE is identifying partners to provide MHPSS for health workers, many of whom have been traumatized by the loss they have experienced and/or witnessed. The Adıyaman University Hospital manager conveyed that his team is “often on the verge of tears” due to stress.
Meanwhile, efforts are underway to deliver additional containers in Antakya (20 units) and Kahramanmaraş (20 units) to be used by local authorities to facilitate the administration of essential services to displaced populations. Project HOPE is also coordinating a distribution of 15,000 hygiene kits through a partner to the ten sites assessed for the report mentioned above.
Project HOPE continues to respond to the needs of the impacted populations across both Türkiye and Syria. Currently, Project HOPE is in the process of delivering an interagency health kit to a partner in Syria, which contains one ton of medicines and medical supplies and will support the primary health needs of 10,000 people over the course of three months.
In Türkiye, Project HOPE has delivered generators through the Ministry of Health to a large shelter settlement in Gaziantep, as well as a substantial number of hygiene kits, standard blankets, thermal blankets, and sleeping bags to impacted communities in Adiyaman.
Project HOPE’s team is communicating with local partners operating in Syria to respond to the immediate health needs. This is likely to include supporting program activities of partners as well as the potential delivery of medicines and medical supplies to the impacted communities.
Project HOPE is working to identify additional local Turkish vendors for the procurement of medical supplies, hygiene kits, and generators for distribution to the Ministry of Health and impacted health facilities.
Project HOPE’s Spanish-based partner, SAMU, continues to conduct search and recovery operations with a K-9 team in affected areas. Our Emergency Response Team is also continuing to communicate with partners operating in Syria in order to best respond to immediate health needs.
Our Emergency Response Team on the ground has conducted needs assessments in affected areas and identified access points in Gaziantep, Adana, Adiyaman, Kahramanmaras, and Antakya to inform our response activities and re-establish supply chain routes.
Project HOPE continues to work with our partners to respond to immediate needs, including the deployment of a Type 1 Mobile Medical Team on standby pending government approval. The Emergency Response Team is also mobilizing additional surge support.
Project HOPE has partnered with SAMU, a Spanish-based humanitarian response organization, and Dünya Doktorları Derneği, a local relief organization. Through our collaborations with these partners, we have dispatched a K-9 search and rescue team to the earthquake zone in Türkiye to conduct lifesaving operations at this critical time.
Project HOPE has partnered with SAMU, a Spanish-based humanitarian response organization, and Dünya Doktorlar Derneği, a Turkish-based relief organization. Through our collaboration with these partners, we are deploying a K-9 search and rescue team to the earthquake zone in Türkiye to conduct lifesaving operations at this critical time.
At last count, more than 2,300 people have been killed, 5,000 are injured, and thousands of buildings have collapsed in Türkiye and Syria. These numbers are expected to rise as rescue workers conduct operations. The earthquake struck as a winter storm is affecting the region, so as residents fled their homes they were met with not only near-freezing temperatures, but with several inches of snow on the ground and significant wind chills. These dangerous conditions are affecting not only civilians displaced without shelter, but also the rescue teams.