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- [00:02]
Andy Choi
From Rotary magazine, this is the Rotary Voices podcast. I'm andy Choi. On February 6, 2023, two earthquakes struck Turkey and Syria. The first was a magnitude 7.8 quake. Its epicenter was near the city of Gazhuntep in south central Turkey near the border with Syria. Nine hours later, a second one at 7.5 magnitude hit further north. The earthquakes were the deadliest to hit the region in 80 years. Up to 9.1 million people were directly affected and some estimates say the destroyed area spanned the size of Germany between Turkey and Syria. The earthquakes left more than 50,000 people dead, more than 100,000 injured and several million without homes. Six Rotarians and Rotoractors died in the quakes. The morning of the earthquakes, Rotary regional leaders in Turkey mounted an immediate response. They came up with a three pronged plan, starting with emergency relief, offering urgent assistance to survivors, then addressing shelter needs in the form of container cities for displaced residents, and finally meeting the long term needs for everything from water treatment to kids education. At the same time, Rotary International and the Rotary foundation enacted their own disaster response funds, eventually distributing a collective total of over US$4 million to support affected communities in Turke. This money funded the very projects that Rotary members across the region design. One year after the earthquakes, Rotary magazine and social media staff JP Swensen and Hannah Shah traveled to southeast Turkey where they joined Rotary regional leaders Emre Azturk and Souat Baizan who showed them the projects they set in motion following the quakes.
- [02:04]
Suat Baizan
It's late April of 2024. I find myself riding in the back of a van traveling hours in this hot car south down the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. I'm looking out the window as the mountains grow taller over time. They're called the Nur Mountains in southeastern Turkey.
- [02:29]
Emre Ozturk
So we are sort of going through a beautiful countryside as well, where you can see all the greenery, all the olive trees and the orange trees and the citrus trees.
- [02:43]
Suat Baizan
I'm not the only passenger. That's Souab Baisan. He's a regional Rotary leader here in Turkey. He sits across from me and my colleague JP Swenson. Suat seems to know everything there is to know about the region. And with hours left in our road trip, Suwat has plenty of time to impart this knowledge to us.
- [03:05]
Emre Ozturk
This place dates back to thousands of years and it's called Fertile Crescent. It starts from Adana and goes all the way into Iraq and into Syria as well. And the rivers dominate this area. There are two big rivers.
- [03:20]
Suat Baizan
So what are JP and I doing in Turkey. What's the story with this armchair historian sitting across from us? Well, I'm actually in Turkey to meet Suat and his fellow regional Rotary leader, Emre Ozturk, who's driving just ahead of us in a separate van leading the way down south. Hatay, Turkey's southernmost province, was the hardest hit by the February 2023 earthquakes. Nearly half of the total deaths were reported in Hatay. Suat, who lives in Istanbul, felt the tremor roughly 800 km away from the epicenter.
- [04:02]
Emre Ozturk
So it had a huge impact not only in this region, but as a country as a whole. We woke up with a huge disaster news and the important thing is the houses and the hospitals and the schools had all been damaged. So that was really shocking to the people in this region.
- [04:26]
Suat Baizan
At 6am on the day of the earthquakes, Emre organized a call with Suat and another regional leader. Together, the three district governors outlined a three pronged plan that would grow into a multimillion dollar global relief effort. Their plan began with fulfilling immediate emergency relief needs, providing food, water, heat and shelter through tent camps provided by Rotary's disaster relief partner, Shelterbox. The immediate relief expanded to long term efforts in the form of container cities and a field hospital. Their plan then addressed what Suat refers to as the softer parts of kids education, mental health services and job training.
- [05:13]
Emre Ozturk
I think that the soft parts have to be preserved together with putting the concrete in all the steel back in does not really bring back that culture. So that should be a lot of skills that need to be rebuilt here.
- [05:26]
Suat Baizan
Meanwhile, Rotary's global membership mobilized to support their work, eventually distributing a collective total of over US$4 million to support affected communities foreign. Today you'll join us on three stops as we give you a glimpse into Rotary's accomplishments in the province of Hatay. But first, let's learn a bit more about our guides, Suat and Emre. I first heard about Souat and Emre's story when one of their Facebook video dispatches from the field was sent my way. The video shows Emre and Souat side by side standing in the city of Antakya. Here's a clip from that video.
- [06:11]
Emre Ozturk
Friends, this is District Governor M. Roshit from District 2413. This is Sraat from District 2420. Our tears are really flowing from our eyes and now we are talking to local authorities to build tents as well as containerized locations. And that's what we are here for at this moment. Please God, help all those we have lost.
- [06:41]
Suat Baizan
Suat and Emre complement Each other nicely. Emre is a kind but serious businessman, while Suat's a hardworking retiree, filled to the brim with information and observations he'd love to share with you. In the weeks following the earthquakes, Emre spent 40 days in the field, driving back and forth from less damaged parts of the region. Now, over a year later, we're retracing their routes. The more time we spent with them, the less surprising it was that the two pulled off such a massive project in the wake of this tragedy with the help of their global rotary family, of course. As we drive south along the coast of the Mediterranean, there's plenty of time to get to know Suat.
- [07:27]
Emre Ozturk
So as you have been now traveling into Turkey, you realize that in Turkey, we are all connected to each other. We have relatives everywhere in some part of this country. So it's really scary and very worrying seeing that damage on the tv. And what we had to do is to travel here immediately after the earthquake to make sure not only our families, but everybody that we can help.
- [07:53]
Suat Baizan
On our drive south along the coast, we pass through the city of Iskanderon.
- [07:58]
Emre Ozturk
Iskanderon is very popular for its history as well as agriculture.
- [08:04]
Suat Baizan
Here we picked up Cesgin Azulu, a local rotary member who survived the earthquakes and played a key role in the city's relief efforts. We asked him about his life before the earthquakes as we finished the last hour of our drive.
- [08:18]
Emre Ozturk
I'm Sezgin from Iskenderon, the president of the Iskender club. I am 40 years old. I'm a civil engineer.
- [08:28]
Suat Baizan
Fortunately, Suzgin was able to help his family to safety when the first earthquake hit. Ceskin tells us that it was total darkness. He grabbed his children and wife. Some of the walls had fallen down. They walked through the rubble, trying to exit the building as quickly as possible. But many residents in Iskanderon were trapped under the rubble, injured or killed in the earthquakes. The scale of the destruction was not immediately apparent. But once the early morning light rose on a skanderoon, Sezkin realized that almost 30% of the city had been destroyed. There was no electricity, a gas shortage and little food. Temperatures were around freezing, and the crews working to clear rubble were spread thin. Suat translates for us.
- [09:19]
Emre Ozturk
Yeah, these huge industrial machines, they came in to take the rubble away so that we can save the people. But unfortunately, there was nobody to operate there. There was human resources shortage. Here is all of the buildings. These buildings have all collapsed, as you can see here now.
- [09:41]
Suat Baizan
Suad and Suzgin point out the window at passing mounds of rubble. Suzgin explained that in the three days following the earthquake, his family, like many others across the region, was living in their car. Shelterbox provided tents for survivors in Iskandarun.
- [10:02]
Emre Ozturk
The third day the district 2440 tents have arrived and built. The tents still on the third day, much faster than anybody else we were here.
- [10:14]
Suat Baizan
The Iskandarun Tent City housed 860 people following the earthquakes. As a survivor of the earthquakes and a civil engineer, Sesgin was crucial in facilitating Rotary's quick response by making introductions to local leaders following the earthquake, many residents left if they could, but Cesgin stayed. He received the trucks of humanitarian aid filled with donations from Rotary clubs throughout the country. Suak continues translating for we are Rotarians.
- [10:44]
Emre Ozturk
Because we love to serve the community, humanity. And I wanted to stay here because this is my heritage, this is my. I don't want to leave. I want to continue contributing to rebuild the old cities and all the culture here. And professionally, I'm also an engineer and also a Rotarian and a good father, I think. So he wants to continue contributing throughout this process as a Rotarian.
- [11:16]
Suat Baizan
Unsurprisingly, Emre and Suat were on the ground in Iskanderoon setting up the tent city alongside Sezgin and their fellow Rotarians. Here's another clip from Suat's video dispatches during the relief efforts.
- [11:30]
Emre Ozturk
So we are here at Scandal. This is the Rotary tent city. We have about 100 tents here which we provided from the neighboring district and we set them up here. We provided electricity, we provided heaters, we're providing everything that we need. The sleeping bags, blankets, food, lights, whatever they need. And we're trying to have them a better condition in this freezing cold weather. So this is the first tent city in Skanderu, which was founded by Rotary.
- [12:05]
Suat Baizan
The Rotary members worked with Shelterbox to distribute over 2,500 tents throughout the region. But with the help of Shelterbox, these tent cities evolved into long term relief for survivors. Let's zoom out for a second. In the immediate aftermath, the first prong of Rotarian's relief efforts addressed water, food, health and basic shelter from the elements. But with 1.5 million people left homeless from the disaster, more permanent housing solutions were container homes. Container homes are modified prefabricated shipping containers. And in the wake of a massive disaster, and in this case in the years afterwards, they function as everything from homes to schools to hospitals to kebab shops. Rotary members supported four container cities in the earthquake affected region. In total donations from rotary members supplied 350 of the container homes. Donations from across the globe made these container homes possible.
- [13:14]
Emre Ozturk
We will see funds from all over the world and they sent directly to us, to the districts. So it was a joint effort. Monaco, India, Japan. They sent the funds directly to us, and we used it.
- [13:29]
Suat Baizan
Rotary members erected container cities in four affected cities throughout southeastern Turkey. The homes are small, like the size of a studio apartment. But they provide enough space for essentials such as toilets, showers, cooking utensils, beds and air conditioning, as well as the comforts of home, such as televisions, porches and gardens. Many of these accommodations aren't common in other container homes throughout the region.
- [13:55]
Emre Ozturk
Rotary is fully furnished. Even we have TV washing with even utensils like forks, knives. So that's the Rotary's difference. You can go in, turn the key, and you can inside the container. That's the difference of.
- [14:17]
Suat Baizan
So it's time for our first stop, a Rotary Container City. The city of Antakya was one of the hardest hit by the earthquakes. On February 6th, two thirds of the remaining residents in Antakya are living in containers. Over a year after the earthquake, we enter the container city and see white box homes laid out in tight rows forming streets. Large trees surround the city, offering patches of shade. As we walk through the rows of identical shipping containers, a group of children buzz about on bikes. Some of the containers have patio furniture outside of them, flanked by small potted flower gardens or adorned with hanging plants. Suat hasn't seen the Container City since he helped establish it. He smiles ear to ear as we walk through. One resident led us into her container home to show us around. Suat translates for us as we speak with the residents.
- [15:17]
Emre Ozturk
So this is 21 square meters, but they are very happy living. Okay, there is a bath, bedroom, kitchen and bedroom.
- [15:25]
Suat Baizan
She lives in the container with her two children who are playing nearby. We ask her about her life before the earthquakes.
- [15:34]
Emre Ozturk
She was doing the children's clothing downtown and there's a shop. She was very happy working there. Completely collapsed as well.
- [15:49]
Suat Baizan
We also spoke to her neighbors, a married couple who owned a bakery before the earthquake. Their children run in and out of the container home playing as we talk. This family also lived in tents here before the containers arrived.
- [16:07]
Emre Ozturk
Previously, they were living in a tent, and when it rains, obviously water flows through the tent and it all gets muddy. It's very hot as well in the tent.
- [16:20]
Suat Baizan
Shelter is limited in Antakya, so they are happy to have a home where it's collapsed.
- [16:27]
Emre Ozturk
They cannot sort of relocate to another place. At this moment. So they are happy living here.
- [16:33]
Suat Baizan
One resident we spoke to had maintained a lively sense of humor. He welcomed us into his home with a wide grin, cracking jokes.
- [16:41]
Emre Ozturk
He is the world's longest jumper. He can jump from mountain to mountain, too.
- [16:50]
Suat Baizan
His sense of humor alone is a triumph, as his experience in the earthquake was particularly grim. His wife shared their story.
- [16:59]
Emre Ozturk
And the earth was shaking, the walls were falling, and her daughter had a key to the garden gate. So she opened the gate and saved them. Otherwise they would have been dead. Now there were living next door to a graveyard.
- [17:15]
Suat Baizan
The first night following the earthquakes, this couple slept in that graveyard beside their crumbling home. Other survivors of the quake described taking shifts, sleeping in a car on the first night. As we continue on, I wonder how those who experienced the earthquakes even began to put the pieces of their lives back together. And despite the man's sense of humor and laughter, I wonder about the invisible toll a disaster has on its survivors. It's time for our second stop, this time in the historic city center of Antakya, built on the site of Antioch, an ancient city that dates back to 300 BCE. Today, the scale of the destruction from the earthquakes comes into focus. There's fields of rubble, leaning buildings, tilted, empty storefronts with shattered window displays. There's a looming cloud of dust and so many containers.
- [18:19]
Emre Ozturk
So anything that you see here that is flat used to be a building.
- [18:24]
Suat Baizan
Much of the modern city crumbled in the quake. We're walking down what is said to be the first illuminated street in the world, Kurdulus Street. It is said that this street was lit with torches at night in Roman times. This ancient street is home to some of the world's first churches, mosques and synagogues. Wedged between a mountainside and a river, little here was spared by the earthquakes. The feeling of walking on hallowed ground is contrasted with the street's current state. It's a sea of wreckage. Old mosques are enshrouded in crumbled piles of concrete. People sift through piles of rubble. A stack of doors leans against a tree. All of this serves as a reminder of the sheer number of lives and homes that were lost in the destruction. As we walk, the sound of construction follows us everywhere. Heavy machinery demolishes buildings and clears the rubble, another reminder of the seemingly permanent state of transition this area is in. Despite this, there was an air of hope and pride throughout our visit.
- [19:39]
Emre Ozturk
You can take some lessons from the earthquake. The earthquake does not really care about religion, just destroys anything that's built which is weaker than expected. So we see here churches collapsing, we see here synagogues collapsing and mosques collapsing. And now they have to rebuild altogether. So it just represents the unity of humanity rather than diversification in religion. So I think that's the lesson we should take from the earthquake.
- [20:16]
Suat Baizan
We take a hilly drive out of the city center into a more rural area called Samandag. After we park, we start to hike up a steep drive. Ahead of us, we can hear what can only be described as pure joy. The smack of handheld instruments, traditional Turkish string music, and the cheers of children ringing out from the pavilion of a primary school. Our third and final stop. With the sun beating down on this hot spring day, these children are performing a traditional dance for their fellow classmates and a small crowd of Rotary members. It's a celebration. After the dances, new toys are doled out. Toys the children wished for at the beginning of the year as a part of an annual Rotary project. The toys are simple, a doll or a ball. But the children are thrilled. They release helium balloons into the air in celebration of their new toys and the balloons float out to the mountain filled horizon. Among the partygoers in the courtyard, we see a woman standing tall, surrounded by a sea of children. It's Demet Ozal and her two toddler sized hand puppets. It is immediately apparent that she has a natural way with children. They flock to her. The puppets have giant mouths that move as Demet talks. They are both her sidekicks and an extension of herself. The puppets give her a channel to connect with these children and they are enthralled. So just to start, can I just have your name and then a little.
- [22:03]
Andy Choi
Bit about your herself?
- [22:08]
Suat Baizan
As a Rotary member and puppeteer, she operated out of a tent in the Iskandarun tent city, helping the children begin to heal from the earthquakes. She explains that the first step for children to recover from a traumatic event is returning to a sense of normalcy. Suat translates our conversation for us.
- [22:26]
Emre Ozturk
So the professionals and experts have said that you should not start any therapy we with the children immediately after such a shock. And they recommended that they should continue as is, as if they are going back to school, as if everything is back to normal.
- [22:41]
Suat Baizan
So Demmitt and her puppets did just that. They helped the children in the tent city play, laugh and find joy as they would before the earthquakes.
- [22:50]
Emre Ozturk
So she started having a dedicated tent for the children's education and playground. So for four or five months, the materials sent from Istanbul, Izmir, all over Turkey was delivered to her. And she then makes sure that the children get those Toys or writing material, whatever they are, and then don't be stuck with the trauma.
- [23:17]
Suat Baizan
We step into the primary school and meet two Rotary members and psychologists, Eileen Ozkan and Orhan Goren. They tended to earthquake survivors mental health needs in the immediate aftermath and help address ongoing trauma they're still experiencing today.
- [23:34]
Eileen Ozkan
So this is the mental health committee of Rotary 2430. So since the earthquake happened, the volunteer psychologists who are actually Rotarians, were actually on the field facing every day or every monthly basis the earthquake survivors.
- [23:49]
Suat Baizan
Their project partners, including Rotary members in Germany, developed an online therapy platform to address ongoing mental health needs for earthquake survivors. Orhan tells us about the need for mental health support following the earthquakes.
- [24:04]
Eileen Ozkan
This earthquake affected 16 million people in the zone and that left 6 million people potential post some stress disorder cases. But on the other side there is a very limited experience experts and Rotary is one of the actually foundations in the field providing this support directly to the civilians in container villages.
- [24:30]
Suat Baizan
He puts the devastation we've seen into words.
- [24:33]
Eileen Ozkan
They lost their loved ones, they lost their works, they lost their homes, almost no family.
- [24:41]
Suat Baizan
While driving through earthquake affected areas, we saw tents set up right next to tilted houses. Our guides informed us folks were living next to their houses waiting for them to be graded for damage by government officials and are afraid of them collapsing in another quake. We asked the mental health professionals how fear of another quake affects survivors.
- [25:02]
Eileen Ozkan
One of my colleagues had lost almost half of their relatives. So this is a devastating event.
- [25:08]
Suat Baizan
Despite the challenges and devastations, this program meets survivors where they're at.
- [25:13]
Eileen Ozkan
What we do is we do the triage, identifying the survivor and assigning the expert online and they come to the therapy container in their village, the expert outside of the earthquake zone and connected on a weekly basis with the personalized support. We also monitor the trauma effect by analyzing their physiology.
- [25:36]
Suat Baizan
In the wake of such tragedy, they've had some successes. The group even helped prevent a suicide from happening in one of the container cities. They've also supported survivors in visiting the graves of lost loved ones.
- [25:50]
Eileen Ozkan
Support is very critical, at least for the person who are touched by Rotary will find the opportunity to win back.
- [25:58]
Suat Baizan
Outside, a mobile kitchen is parked on blocks in the steep driveway leading up to the school. This too is a Rotary project that began in the early days of the aftermath. The mobile kitchen is like a food truck. A rambunctious line of children forms at the truck today on the menu, the universal food of elementary school celebrations, Pizza. This pizza delivery is a special job for this mobile kitchen. Its usual work is distributing meals to the City's nearby Container cities where many of these children live. Much like the Rotary members we spoke to at the school, the Mobile Kitchen has delivered immediate and long term relief from the devastating earthquakes that hit this region just over a year before this celebration. As Rotary members pass out pizza to the crowd of delighted children, it's clear they've made their mark on this community. But as much as we'd like to stay and bask in the energy of this pizza party, we have a long drive ahead of us. Our day in Antakya and Samanda is finished with a three hour drive north back up the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. This is the same drive Emre did so often in the weeks after the earthquakes. I am exhausted physically and emotionally from simply learning about all of Rotary's relief efforts here. It's hard to imagine how the Rotary members found the energy to accomplish so much in the wake of such great loss and destruction. But I don't have to wonder. Suat and Emre, among the others we spoke to today, made it clear that they're fueled by the drive to help each other. That's a quintessential characteristic of Rotary's members. Souat and Emre told us one of the initial challenges they faced was that the whole Rotary world wanted to come immediately and help. It was overwhelming and a disaster of this scale required an organized response. Back in Antakya, Suat spoke on this point in a way that really stood out to me.
- [28:08]
Emre Ozturk
So when the earthquake has happened, it united everybody in this country. Everybody wanted to come in, do as much as they can help. So inside you, you were feeling I must go and help. But on the other hand, there's no transportation to go.
- [28:24]
Suat Baizan
Unity, connection, overcoming differences. Suat tells me that these Rotary principles were key to the relief efforts.
- [28:33]
Emre Ozturk
We all have relatives in every part of the country. So when something happens, we feel that city and we travel and we know. We know that every city has a different cuisine. We know that every city has different dress, every city has a different dialect. So that is what connects and that's what brings in this wholeness or uniqueness. So I think this lesson from the earthquake is yes, if something happens, we are all one and we are ready to go and help whoever is needed. It's my relative or not doesn't really matter. We all rush in and maybe sometimes we rush too quickly. That's what happened as well. So we have to plan, take time, and really address the exact need of those people who are still living in this city. I'm sure this city will recover back to its original historic value. I think it will be full of tourists again. It will take some time, but I'm very hopeful.
- [29:37]
Suat Baizan
In part two, our tour continues as my colleague JP takes us to Adeyaman, another heavily hit city more inland, where Rotary members have also concentrated their relief efforts. There we'll meet Emre and Suat's dear friend Ferit Bin Zet, a Rotary member who overcame great personal loss and found hope in helping others. Stay tuned.
- [30:05]
Emre Ozturk
Foreign.
- [30:15]
Andy Choi
This episode of the Rotary Voices Podcast was produced by JP Swenson and Hannah Shaw and edited by Wen Huang. Production by Yoo Soo Kim. I'm Andy Choi. If you enjoyed the show, please rate us five stars on Apple Podcast and Spotify and share it with your friends. Friends the Rotary Voices Podcast is produced by Rotary Magazine, the official monthly publication of Rotary International. Thanks for listening.