Almost a year after the Kahramanmaraş-centered earthquakes that impacted 11 southern provinces, 1,874 out of the 1,912 orphaned children affected by the tragedy have successfully reunited with their families, Ayşegül Yıldırım Kara, director general of child services at the Family, Labor and Social Services Ministry, reported.
Kara stated that the ministry quickly formed a crisis desk after the earthquakes and said: "After the first minutes of the earthquake, this crisis team contacted the provinces to ensure coordination in all areas where we provide services. We first reached out to protect the children who stayed in our institutions in the earthquake region and transferred approximately 900 children to our institutions in different regions of Türkiye within 48 hours."
With cooperation from other ministries and organizations, the children who lost their relatives in the earthquake, whose families could not be reached or who were unidentified, were identified and cared for.
"We had 1,912 children under the care of our ministry. Of these 1,912 children, we reunited 1,874 of them with their families after carrying out investigations. We based our process strictly on scientific evidence."
Kara stated that, directly after the quakes, 16 of the children under their care died after being hospitalized for injuries. In other cases, six were placed in the care of foster families, 15 were taken under the protection of ministry institutions, and one is still receiving medical treatment.
The official also assured that follow-up psychosocial support for the children under their protection and care continued and that special activities for children with post-traumatic stress disorder were organized.
"Our field screening teams have worked to support approximately 4 million children in the earthquake region one by one in terms of psychosocial support. Of these, about 4,000 children had lost their relatives. We also carried out one-on-one follow-ups with children who lost their mothers, fathers or both their parents," she stated.
Highlighting that the ministry’s work in the earthquake region also reached out to support adults, Kara said: "We have also strengthened our support for parents. While we provided psychosocial support to both families and children, we also provided psychosocial support services to our colleagues."
