The Front Page: Turkey-Syria earthquake death toll exceeds 41,000

People search for their relatives in a collapsed building in Kahramanmaras. Photo / Emin Ozmen, The New York Times

More than 41,000 people have lost their lives in the devastating 7.8 magnitude earthquake that shook a region spanning from across Turkey and Syria to its core.

Those numbers are staggering, but they do not capture the emotion of the human stories of loss suffered in both countries.

World Vision programme director Clynton Beuekes tells The Front Page podcast there’s one story, in particular, he can’t shake.

“One of our team members was walking down the street in Gaziantep when he encountered a man sitting outside his apartment building,” Beukes starts.

“But the apartment building had completely collapsed. There was nothing left of it. It used to be an eight-storey building. And there he was just sitting outside the front of the building in the freezing cold.

“My colleague asked him: ‘Why are you just sitting here? Why don’t you go and sit by the fire or go to the shelter?’ And his response was: ‘My family’s in there’” The humanitarian worker pleaded again, saying that there was nothing left of the structure but the man remained unmoved.

“He responded: ‘My wife is still in that. So are all of my relatives, my neighbours, my friends. They’re all in that structure.’”

Beukes says the man simply refused to move from the site until the bodies of his loved ones were recovered.

“What do you say to someone like that? And the thing is that this story is replicated hundreds, if not thousands of times across Northwest Syria, Aleppo and Turkey… And the death toll and destruction we see is still not a done story… We estimate that over 9.2 million people have been impacted very directly.”

The extent of the damage has led to significant migration, with families picking up what they can and moving elsewhere to restart their lives.

“Our team tells me that Gaziantep is a ghost town. Lots of people have also left other parts of Turkey just to find a new life for themselves.”

While there has been an outpouring of support from the international community, Beukes says there is still so much more needed to help those worst affected by this crisis.

“There is still so much to be done,” he says.

“Many people are still without shelter and are really trying to find a place to sleep. Unfortunately, the situation in Northwest Syria, Idlib, Afrin and A’zaz is dire. It has gone from a year ago when we were wrestling with a massive cholera outbreak that really decimated the healthcare system and caused 40-50,000 people to get sick to an earthquake.”

The compound effect of these events has led to a massive shortfall in resources and funding to support those now affected by the earthquake.

“Over the last two years, we’ve seen a massive decrease in international aid to northwest Syria, with some donors cutting 50 per cent of their funding, which meant that the healthcare system was already on its knees prior to the earthquake.”

Asked what New Zealanders could do to offer even a small amount of help, Beukes offers some relatively simple advice.

“Please don’t forget about Syria,” he says.

“Do what you can to educate yourself by reading one or two news articles on what’s happening. Please just remember Syria because it can be so easy to forget when the next crisis rolls around.”

To donate or see how you can help, visit www.worldvision.org.nz or text RESPOND to 5055 to make a $3 donation.

Listen to the full episode of today’s episode of The Front Page podcast to get a sense of the gravity of the crisis unfolding across the region.