In Turkey, WEA Partnership eV and SOS World supported the First Hope Association (FHA) – a Turkish aid organization with links to the Turkish Association of Protestant Churches – in bringing humanitarian aid to the regions devastated by the earthquake in February 2023.
The project was planned as a two-month intervention from mid-October to the end of November 2023 and aimed to support around 800 families with approximately 3,000 people in the worst-affected provinces of Hatay, Gaziantep and Kahramanmaras by distributing essential aid supplies.
The project funds were primarily used for direct aid, including hygiene items, food parcels, underwear, adult diapers, and drinking water. The project emphasized careful coordination with local authorities and social services to ensure that the most vulnerable groups were reached, particularly people living in tents, the elderly, and people with disabilities. The FHA's existing operational capacities and local networks were intended to facilitate the efficient procurement, transport, and distribution of the aid supplies.
In practice, the results achieved far exceeded the original scope and timeframe of the project. Nine months after the earthquake, the FHA not only continued distributing the planned relief supplies but also expanded its activities both geographically and programmatically. With funding from the WEA Partnership, the FHA was able to reach vulnerable populations in the five provinces of Hatay, Kahramanmaras, Gaziantep, Malatya, and Adiyaman, supporting more than 3,000 people, including the elderly, people with disabilities, and families with babies.
An unexpected outcome following the immediate emergency relief efforts in the earthquake zone was the gradual shift of FHA activities to longer-term reconstruction measures. These included the construction of a 500-container city in Hatay, comprising 170 residential containers and washing facilities, directly addressing the ongoing need for housing. Furthermore, FHA became increasingly involved in education, building three schools and distributing thousands of school supplies to affected children.
Overall, the project was originally conceived as short-term emergency aid, but the results achieved show a strong expansion towards sustainable aid and early reconstruction.
