One year on from the Turkey-Syria earthquakes: How UK donations are helping people recover

The British public is contributing to the two nations’ efforts to rebuild after what Ankara called the ‘disaster of the century’. The Disasters Emergency Committee is bringing aid to those in need

Amal* sits with her son in front of a tent in Jenderes, Syria (Karam Al-Masri/DEC)

On 6 February 2022, at 4.17am local time, the strongest earthquake to hit Turkey since 1939 caused devastation over a widespread area covering southern Turkey and northwest Syria.

More than 300,000 buildings were destroyed or badly damaged, with thousands collapsing as people slept in their beds.

More than 56,000 people were killed – 50,783 in Turkey and at least 5,900 in Syria.

While the earthquake lasted seconds, rebuilding will take years, and many people are still living in tents or converted shipping containers.

ActionAid partner Violet conducts rescue operations in northwest Syria (ActionAid)

Families queuing for food distribution at a Turkish Red Crescent camp housing some of the tens of thousands of people displaced by the earthquakes in Osmaniye (Bradley Secker/British Red Cross)

In the year since the earthquakes, they have endured freezing temperatures, flooding and extreme heat.

The disaster zone also spanned the front line in the ongoing Syrian civil war, hampering relief efforts, and affected an area where 2 million people had already fled from their homes due to the conflict.

Abeer is the mother of a newborn daughter, born in an ActionAid-funded hospital in northwest Syria (Sonya Al Ali Maara/Action Aid)

Kamel*, pictured helping aid workers in Aleppo, was supported by the water programme from DEC charity Oxfam. He lives in a shelter with Mounir* (Hasan Belal / Fairpicture / DEC)

The Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), which brings together 15 leading UK aid agencies in times of crisis overseas, launched the Turkey-Syria Earthquake Appeal on 9 February, and has now raised £155m, making it the largest charity donor to the earthquake response, according to UN figures.

Wael* and his family received cash support after the earthquake through DEC charity British Red Cross’s local partner (Syrian Arab Red Crescent) in Syria (Hasan Belal / Fairpicture / DEC)

Zeliha and Mutaba in Kahramanmaras Women’s Cooperative. Oxfam KEDV provides training, counselling and an income for 100 women who come here every week (Özge Sebzeci/ DEC / Fairpicture)

Donations from the UK have been providing lifesaving support including food, clean water and medical care for hundreds of thousands of people.

Charities have also used cash payments and vouchers as an efficient way to help people meet their family’s basic needs.

An aid worker from DEC charity Action Against Hunger and the manager of a school working together on a solar electricity project supported by AAH in Aleppo (Hasan Belal / Fairpicture / DEC)

Sara* was among the women and girls who received sanitary towels at Kahramanmaras tent and container city on 22 November when Amanda Redman visited (Özge Sebzeci / DEC / Fairpicture)

The focus is now shifting towards helping the survivors of the earthquake to begin to rebuild their lives by restarting livelihoods and getting children back to school.

Find out the many ways UK donations to the Disasters Emergency Committee are helping in Turkey and Syria here.

*Names changed