|
PROGRAMS
Shelter Reconstruction»
Emergency Winterization»
Community Infrastructure and Educational Enrichment»
Basic Disaster Awareness»
Social Development»
Income Generation»
Local NGO Capacity Building Training Program»
BACKGROUND
Turkey suffered two disastrous earthquakes in 1999.
On August 17, 1999 and again on November 12th of the
same year, earthquakes measuring 7.4 and 7.1 on the
Richter scale, respectively, hit Turkey in areas east of
Istanbul. The first earthquake which occurred on August
17 rocked the Marmara Region and has been followed by as
many as 5,000 aftershocks, some of which have registered
as much as 5.5 to 6.0 on the Richter scale. The second
earthquake, on November 12, 1999, was further to the
east and centerd on Düzce, a town of approximately
80,000 persons in the Bolu Province. The earthquake took
place along the Düzce Fault Zone and caused damage and
loss to be felt in the areas of Düzce, Kaynasli, Bolu,
Akcakoca, Zonguldak and Adapazari.
More than 17,000 persons are officially known to have
perished, 29,000 were injured, and 800,000 were rendered
homeless. The unofficial death toll is reported at over
40,000 persons. Approximately 20,000 buildings were
completely destroyed, and more than 284,000 were damaged,
180,000 severely. The earthquakes caused major damage to
industries, brought about a shortage of medicine, and
had a traumatic effect on individual lives. The areas
hit from both earthquakes are in Turkey's industrial
heartland and the most densely populated area outside of
Istanbul.
As a result of the 1999 earthquakes, hundreds of
thousands of people, many of whom lost their immediate
family members and relatives, found themselves in a
situation with a severe lack of shelter, food, health
care and education. Further, trauma victims required
psychosocial counselling and social support and other
assistance. The Turkish Government established a
Disaster Co-ordination Center within the Prime
Minister's Office, with a Co-ordinating Governor based
in Izmit, to co-ordinate relief activities in the
affected provinces.
The government, along with local and international
agencies and NGOs, responded immediately to the
emergency with the provision of temporary shelters,
food, health care, counselling and other social services.
More than 130 tent cities, with over 100,000 tents, were
initially set up to provide survivors with emergency
shelter. The majority of tents were small, not
weatherproof and erected on bare ground. Unfortunately,
these tents were not upgraded or winterised and many
families remained in inadequate living conditions
throughout the winter of 1999/2000. People not living in
tents either moved in with relatives or relocated to
other regions of Turkey. As another fast-gap and
temporary solution to emergency shelter needs, the
Turkish Government and the international community
launched temporary prefabricated housing projects
throughout the affected regions. Today, thousands of
families are still living in prefabricated houses in
large camp like settings throughout both earthquake
regions.
In response to the aftermath of the first earthquake
on August 17, 1999, UMCOR NGO launched a needs
assessment and programme development mission in Turkey
in October 1999. Shortly after launching this mission,
the second earthquake hit Turkey. While developing
programme plans for the first earthquake region, needs
from the second earthquake zone were being brought to
UMCOR NGO's attention. This led UMCOR NGO to closely
assess the needs in both affected regions and develop an
integrated assistance strategy that would allow
intervention in both regions.
Operational since October 1999, the UMCOR Turkey
mission is based in Istanbul with a field office in
Düzce and project activities in Düzce, Gölçük and
Karamursel. In all of its programmes, UMCOR Turkey
establishes a close working relationship with affected
communities, focusing directly on people most in need.
UMCOR Turkey co-ordinates activities with international
humanitarian aid organizations, the Turkish Government
and local NGOs. UMCOR Turkey implements programmes with
funding from a variety of generous donors including
Action by Churches Together (ACT) International,
Catholic Relief Services (CRS), Episcopal Relief and
Development (ERD), General Board of Global Ministries (GBGM)
of The United Methodist Church, and Tear Fund
Netherlands.
Whilst UMCOR Turkey's calendar year 2000 operations
focused on meeting the immediate needs of those persons
affected by the two earthquakes, its calendar year
2001-2002 operations seek to build off of Phase I
activities through a longer-term and more sustainable
approach to project development and implementation.
UMCOR Turkey's ultimate goal is to rehabilitate and
revitalize communities, institutions and individuals
affected by the two devastating earthquakes.
PROGRAMS
Shelter Reconstruction
 |
|
Structural
timber framework and brick works nearing completion at
the UMCOR construction site in Duzce. |
UMCOR Turkey is currently engaged in a Housing
Construction Program (HCP) that provides earthquake
resistant permanent new housing and social
infrastructure to 220 vulnerable families in Düzce that
lost their homes and were affected by the second
earthquake. The HCP is a multifaceted housing
rehabilitation effort that seeks to mobilize communities
to construct their own permanent houses, and to engage
the community's participation in identifying and
addressing community needs, through implementation of
micro-projects. UMCOR Turkey aims to ensure that the
most vulnerable households, such as female-headed
households, the elderly and the disabled, and host
families with a large number of dependents within these
communities, are identified and targeted for assistance.
Families within the above categories, including those
who do not have any access to land (e.g., landless) for
constructing their own home, are currently being
targeted, as well as households who have access to land
and require only technical assistance and material
contributions to construct their house.
 |
|
Women
are actively involved in the construction of their homes. |
Through participatory construction of houses, this
programme also builds the capacity of beneficiaries to
recognise and employ earthquake resistant construction
techniques by providing on-the-job training in
earthquake resistant and traditional housing
construction. The Housing Construction Program is
unique to Turkey as the house design and construction
utilizes traditional construction materials and
techniques. In Turkey's past centuries, most towns and
villages boasted fine wooden houses constructed out of
timber. Timber use for the construction of wooden and
brick houses dates back to the Ottoman period, and has
proven to be more resistant to earthquakes and utilizes
a relatively cheaper technology that can be easily
adopted. There is an enormous advantage to this mode of
construction in a region that is situated within a major
geographical fault line, and which remains prone to
earthquakes and other tremors.
Through its partnership with a local NGO, the Human
Settlement Association (HSA), UMCOR Turkey constructed
temporary prefabricated shelters to meet the immediate
housing needs of 192 families in Düzce who were
displaced by the earthquake. Under this Emergency Mobile
Shelter Project, UMCOR Turkey constructed and ensured
the occupancy of 192 shelter units in the settlement
communities of Kiremitogaci, Hamidiye and Uzunmustaffa.
The units are mobile, in that they can be easily
dismantled, transported and reassembled in another
locale. The prefabricated units constructed by UMCOR Turkey
have also benefited from higher quality materials and
standards of workmanship that separate it from the
government constructed prefabricated units. Unlike many
other prefabricated houses in the earthquake regions
that continuously require winterisation repairs, UMCOR Turkey's
prefabricated units today remain untouched by the
elements.
Emergency Winterization
In an effort to address the most pressing and
immediate need for emergency heating, winterisation and
weatherisation assistance for 950 families living in
tented and prefabricated communities in Düzce and
Gölçük, UMCOR Turkey responded in the winters of 2000
and 2001 with basic emergency distribution and shelter
winterisation projects. In cooperation with Mercy Corps
International, UMCOR Turkey provided 200 families living in the
Yeniköy Prefab Camp with winterisation materials to
repair their prefabricated houses that were leaking and
allowing in wind, rain and surface water. In 2001, UMCOR Turkey
provided 750 families living in prefabricated houses in
Düzce with an emergency winterisation kit that included
a gas heating stove, a three-month's supply of gas
bottles and blankets.
Community Infrastructure and
Educational Enrichment
UMCOR Turkey recently completed construction of a new
kindergarten facility in Düzce. The kindergarten
replaced one that was fully collapsed as a result of the
November 1999 earthquake. Through construction of a
permanent kindergarten facility, UMCOR Turkey seeks to
provide kindergarten-aged children with a safe and
secure environment in which they can develop. Further,
UMCOR Turkey has provided the kindergarten with
educational resources, materials and supplies to enrich
their educational capacity. Throughout the project
design and implementation period, UMCOR Turkey has
worked in close co-operation with the Ministry of
Education and the school administration. As in all of
its projects, UMCOR Turkey seeks to integrate its
assistance and has provided trainings in Basic Disaster
Awareness and Preparedness at both the kindergarten and
its associated vocational high school for girls
specialising in early childhood development.
 |
|
The
Duzce governor and the UMCOR Head of Mission along with
kindergarten children at the ribbon-cutting opening
ceremony of the Duzce kindergarten. |
Beginning in calendar year 2000, UMCOR Turkey worked
with the International Blue Crescent, a local NGO, to
reconstruct and rehabilitate the Karamursel Primary
Boarding School for Hearing Impaired Children, located
just outside of Gölçük in Karamursel, an area
affected by the first earthquake. This project has
facilitated the resumption of education, as well as new
training opportunities, for the school's hearing
impaired students, following the closure of the school
for a one-year period. By December 2000, UMCOR Turkey
completed external and internal reconstruction of the
school, and since the reopening of the school, has
provided integrated assistance including the provision
of educational equipment, materials and supplies, school
and dormitory internal furnishings, disaster
preparedness training for teachers and students,
trainings in modern educational methods for teaching
hearing impaired children and has also sponsored a
visiting volunteers educational enrichment programme.
The visiting volunteers enrichment programme hosts
hearing impaired adult volunteers from around the world
to work with the school's children in after-school and
weekend activities. UMCOR Turkey has hosted both short
and long-term volunteers that share their own life
experiences as a hearing impaired person with the
children, and lead semi-structured activities in
disaster awareness, mural design and production, the use
of the Internet for browsing and connecting with other
hearing impaired students around the world, sports
activities, etc. Volunteers have also been able to
provide institutional linkages between the school and
the hearing impaired community in Turkey. A total of 76
children, between the ages of seven and 18 are currently
enrolled at the school.
Basic Disaster Awareness
UMCOR Turkey seeks to increase awareness of basic
disaster and earthquake response and preparedness
measures for persons and households living in the
earthquake affected regions. In cooperation with
Bosphorus University's Kandilli Earthquake Observatory,
UMCOR Turkey supports Basic Disaster Awareness training
seminars and training-of-trainer sessions in earthquake
affected communities, through integration of these
trainings with other UMCOR Turkey projects.
Social Development
UMCOR Turkey, in partnership with two local NGOs, the
Women's Solidarity Foundation (WSF) and the Human
Resource Development Foundation (HRDF), is providing
women, men, the elderly, youth and children with
resources and services that will enable them to resolve
current social and emotional problems, gain skills for
future prosperity and livelihood, and restore a sense of
stability, control and normalcy to their lives. The
Social Development Program provides educational
training, vocational skills, group and individual
counselling and day care to more than 1,500 persons each
year, through two centers located in the first
earthquake region of Gölçük.
The Women's Solidarity Foundation is currently
implementing skills training and educational activities
for women and youth including computer and literacy
courses, handicraft and theatre workshops and
psychological counselling from its Women's Center established in the Sirinköy prefabricated camp in
Gölçük. Immediately following the earthquake, and
prior to the establishment of the prefabricated Women's
Center, WSF in co-operation with UMCOR Turkey operated
similar activities in designated Women's Tents, offering
women an opportunity to gather and congregate amongst
themselves in a safe environment.
The Human Resource Development Foundation is
currently operating a Community Social Center in the
municipality of Ihsaniye, Gölçük. The project seeks
to facilitate the rehabilitation of the social,
educational and economic structures that were destroyed
and further paralysed by the earthquake, through support
of the Center. UMCOR Turkey and HRDF intend to
accomplish this proximate goal by providing assistance,
through the Center, in the sectors of educational and
psychosocial rehabilitation and development.
 |
|
The
Social Center has arranged for doctors to make
site visits to the Center for both children and
the elderly. |
The
Community Center seeks to provide all members of the
community (including women, men, the elderly, youth and
young children) with resources and services though the
operation of five units for counselling, youth, children,
elderly, and women, targeting over 1,000 persons each
year. Prior to the establishment of the permanent
Ihsaniye Center, UMCOR Turkey and HRDF implemented
similar services in various prefabricated settlements
throughout Gölçük, and at a main center in downtown
Gölçük.
Income Generation
UMCOR Turkey is presently implementing an Empowerment
for Economic Revitalisation Program in Düzce to
rebuild livelihoods and stimulate growth of the local
economy through business skills training and the
provision of grants to small businesses disrupted or
destroyed by the earthquakes. In return for the grant,
recipients are expected to offer an in-kind contribution,
either in the form of material assistance or an
apprenticeship, to a vulnerable person and/or family.
Grants are offered to those who urgently need start-up
capital for a small business activity, as well as those
who need funds to revitalize or expand a small business.
Grant recipients also receive technical assistance and
business skills training from UMCOR Turkey. This
training includes fundamental business skills, such as
how to conduct market feasibility studies, develop a
business plan, marketing strategies, bookkeeping skills
and the legal aspects of owning and operating a
business, etc. A total of 65 individuals are currently
participating in this programme, and businesses assisted
to date include barbers, tailors, plumbers, seamstresses,
tea houses, and food trade.
UMCOR Turkey, in co-operation with the Women's
Solidarity Foundation, is also implementing a Women's
Workshop Income Generation Project. In calendar year
2000, UMCOR Turkey supported WSF's efforts to provide
vocational and handicraft training and skills
development to economically and otherwise vulnerable
women throughout Gölçük and Düzce. As a result of
the skills training programme, WSF established two
viable workshop groups including a candle-making and
home-textile workshop in the Sirinköy prefabricated
settlement of Gölçük. While calendar year 2000
activities focused on the development of women's
technical skills, WSF was able to begin marketing of the
women's handicraft products toward the latter quarter of
2000 and continues to take place. In an effort to
transition the workshops into sustainable business
operatives to be managed by the 43 workshop participants
themselves, the workshops have recently been registered
as a co-operative. Handicrafts produced by the women's
workshop groups are being sold in local markets catering
to tourists in and around Istanbul, as well as to
various large order department stores.
The candle-making workshop is run by 18 women between
the ages of 25 and 50. Whilst production started in
August 2000 with simple production means, it has quickly
developed by increasing the durability and quality of
the candles, enhancing mould and colour variety, and
working on package and label techniques. The
home-textile workshop is run by 25 women between the
ages of 16 and 50. Production quality and means has
increased significantly since its start-up in July 2000.
The workshop continues to standardise its products,
develop new product designs and cost analysis and
pricing of products has been refined. Workshop members
have also received training in technical sewing and
design by specialised professors from Marmara
University's Ready Made Clothing Department of the
Technical Sciences Faculty.
Local NGO Capacity Building Training Program
As part of UMCOR Turkey's role as both a funding
agency and implementing partner with local NGOs in
Turkey, practical technical assistance is being provided
to its local NGO partners in the development of project
concepts, the write up of project proposals and budgets,
and programme implementation and grant management.
Further, UMCOR Turkey assists local NGOs in the
monitoring and evaluation of projects, and ultimately
seeks to increase the capacity of local NGOs to
pro-actively plan and respond to future emergencies. In
furthering its commitment to the national NGO sector in
Turkey, UMCOR Turkey has organized a training programme
in Local NGO Development and Capacity Building, meant to
strengthen partner NGOs, community based organizations
and other national NGOs that are working in the
earthquake affected zones. The training programme
focuses on the fundamental skills required to manage and
administer an NGO, as well as how to implement effective
assistance programmes and projects.
UMCOR Turkey closed on 26th July 2002. For
more information please contact Guy Hovey, Regional Director for Europe and Asia, telephone: +44
1787 378 911, email: guy@umcor-regional.org.
|
