Search and rescue volunteers cheer up quake survivor children

HATAY

In a kind gesture, volunteers who have completed search and rescue operations in Hatay are visiting rural neighborhoods to entertain quake survivor children.

On the first day of the earthquakes, Gezgin Akademi volunteers and AFED, an Eskişehir-based rescue team that went to Kahramanmaraş and Hatay, saved many lives and provided emotional support to survivors.

Led by 15 professionals, around 1,000 volunteers dispersed to quake zone neighborhoods to perform animated shows and hand out gifts to children.

The last stop of the volunteers was the rural neighborhoods in the Altınözü district of Hatay on the Syrian border.

Volunteers sang with children, painted their faces and handed out balloons to help them forget about their recent trauma.

AFED member Zeki Köse said that despite working day and night in the quake zone, they do not feel any fatigue.

Explaining that he had participated in search and rescue operations in Van, Elazığ and İzmir before, Köse stated that Hatay’s condition was one of the worst he had ever seen in his life.

Şemsa Aris, one of the volunteers of Gezgin Akademi, said they have been carrying out similar projects for seven years.

Aris stated that they gifted toys donated from all over Türkiye to quake-stricken children.

“We are trying to reach as many children as we can. The emotional well-being of both children and their families has been greatly affected. We all need to contribute to these children’s healing as our future will be shaped by them,” Aris said.