Quake victims’ mother helps other children through NGO

İZMİR

The foundation established by the mother of the twins who lost their lives in the 6.6-magnitude İzmir earthquake in 2020 provides various aid to children affected by the Kahramanmaraş-centered earthquakes.

Tülin Batmaz, the mother of Sayra and Çınar Alpgündüz, transformed the İyilik İkizim (My Kindness Twin) movement founded after the İzmir quake into the Sayra and Çınar Foundation.

The goal of the movement’s volunteers, who had previously established five libraries, planted saplings, fed stray animals, created an orchard in Africa, provided scholarships, and helped children in the dormitories of the General Directorate of Child Services and in village schools, is to “continue the unfinished missions of Sayra and Çınar,” Batmaz says.

The 2020 earthquake left 115 people dead and injured over 1,000 in the western province.

The foundation, which has been operating since Feb. 12, the twins’ birthday, was one of the first to rush to the quake-hit region after the devastating disaster struck the country’s south on Feb. 6.

It has touched many quake survivor children since then through a humanitarian aid truck sent to the area after the 7.7 and 7.6 magnitude earthquakes that claimed the lives of at least 50,500 people.

“I realized when I lost my loved ones that the only thing that heals a heartache is to heal someone else’s heart,” Batmaz said at the concert organized by the foundation in İzmir on May 6.

Stating that she has been trying to spread the goodness left behind by Sayra and Çınar to more people since their death, she thanked everyone “who has been with her on this path and shared the goodness and beauty.”