Newstalk Breakfast presenter Ciara Kelly has described herself as a “little shook” after arriving in Turkey to see the impact of the country’s recent earthquake.
In February, a quake of 7.8 magnitude on the Richter scale hit the south of the country and neighbouring Syria, sending buildings crashing to the ground and killing over 50,000 people.
Efforts to rebuild the region are ongoing and Dr Kelly is in the epicentre of the disaster.
“I’m a little shook myself from the day we’ve had,” she told The Hard Shoulder.
“You see it on the news and you see it on tele but then you walk through it and it is completely different.”
What was previously a prosperous region of Turkey is now covered in rubble and people are fearful they could be killed if there is another earthquake.
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“Almost all the buildings here are structurally unsound now, so people won’t go into them,” Dr Kelly said.
“So, people are in tents everywhere and… people just have tents outside their homes in their garden.”
Around 1.6 million people are living in tents - including 800,000 children - and the region has just experienced a cold winter.
“It’s warmed up,” Dr Kelly said.
“That is a really big bonus to them now - there have been icy, snow and freezing temperatures.”
2N2XG9C People hug near damaged and collapsed buildings, following an earthquake in Hatay, Turkey February 7, 2023. REUTERS/Guglielmo MangiapaneJean, a Communication Officer for UNICEF in Turkey, said the charity’s priority is getting children back into the classroom.
“Children [need to] get back to normality,” he told Newstalk.
“What we’re trying to do is get them back to what is normal, so they manage their trauma - what they have seen… This is very important child protection work.”
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The total cost of reconstruction is estimated at $35 billion and the region will take several years to fully recover.
“We just made an appeal and we need $196 million,” Jean said
“Obviously, we need the international community to be aware of this need and funding needed is yes - we need to make sure that the stories of these guys are heard.”
If you would like to donate to UNICEF, you can do so here.
