Traumatised child earthquake victims laugh with pals as experts help them forget

11 February 2023 , 20:57

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Children are helped to cope with the horrors of the earthquake at Cumhuriyet Park in Adana (Image: Humphrey Nemar/sunday express)

Children laugh as they navigate an obstacle course in the midday sun, jumping blocks and diving through a tunnel.

The joyful scene could easily be mistaken for a normal day in Cumhuriyet Park in Adana. But the enthusiastic staff helping are psycho-social support workers from Turkey’s Ministry of Family and Social Services, here to help the youngsters cope with post-earthquake trauma.

Sociologist Mihrac Erbova, 40, tells us: “We are trying to help the children forget what happened and give them a place to make friends. We try to explain that Turkey is an earthquake zone and teach them how to survive.”

The park has become a camp for those whose houses are damaged as well as others too terrified to return home for fear of further quakes.

Yildiz Akkose, 29, is living in a tent with her two daughters Gulten, six, and five-year-old Elif. She doesn’t know where they will go next, but is grateful for access to food and toilets, unlike in other badly hit cities.

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A boy wearing facepaint plays in a tunnel at Cumhuriyet Park in Adana (Humphrey Nemar/sunday express)

The young mother is haunted by images of those crushed as their homes collapsed. “I saw people dead without faces, the bodies being put into bags. When I sleep, I see those moments again.”

Sosyete Pazari bazaar across the road is usually crammed with stalls but has been transformed into an aid camp packed with tents. At the entrance, survivors quietly pick through a heap of donated clothing as toiletries are handed out. Food is plentiful with stalls providing steaming bowls of soup, pasta, rice and stew and a truck offers shower and laundry facilities.

The air is thick with smoke from fires burning. As we wander through the maze of tents, Ali Yildirim, 67, invites us to sit with him. He lived in a 15-storey building, where more than 50 were killed and others are still buried. He now sleeps in a tent with five other men.

Turkey's President Erdogan has pledged to rehouse people quickly after the disaster (Getty Images)

He says: “President Erdogan said we would rebuild all the houses within one year. I’ll give him an extra year, but I want my house back as soon as possible.”

He knows it will take time for his proud nation to recover but is hopeful they will rebuild. Ali adds: “Our country is strong but we are relying on help from other countries. You never know what will happen.”

Hanna Geissler