A year on following the deadly twin earthquakes that shook southeastern Türkiye and caused the deaths of 53,537 people, the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) strives to aid local communities to recover from the disaster, the organization’s head of delegation in Türkiye said.

Speaking to Daily Sabah in an exclusive interview, Jessie Thomson underlined that amid global crises, the earthquake tragedy that Türkiye has undergone must not fall off the international community’s agenda.

"With so many competing crises in the world right now, it is easy for Türkiye to be out of sight and out of mind but we know that this was a massive disaster and that there are still many real needs," Thomson said, saying that the initial phase of emergency response was left behind and a period of recovery entered.

"Our key priority there is in helping communities to recover and helping families to get back to normal. One of the big pieces of the puzzle in that recovery effort is helping to restore livelihoods. So, we are working with people to help them restart their businesses or working with farmers to help them get back to farming and get what they need to restart farming and even workers to get back to work who may have been displaced away from their jobs," she elaborated.

Thomson said that the IFRC, in cooperation with theTurkish Red Crescent, started with some cash programming in support of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and farmers, and that roughly 1,500 small businesses and farmers have been helped already in the fall with cash support with varying sizes of cash grants depending on needs. These grants were used for several purposes including buying new supplies that were lost in the earthquake or a need to repair the building where they had their business before, or in the case of farmers, to buy agricultural input.

"And the Turkish Red Crescent (Kızılay) is working alongside those businesses with IFRC’s support to accompany them in that process as well. That could be coaching them to figure out business ideas – maybe they were doing a certain business before but there is a new business need in the area – helping them to identify the most successful way forward and helping them also to access other programs," she continued.

Highlighting that the livelihoods program and the cash grants will continue in the months ahead, Thomson underlined that the organization seeks to target the most vulnerable and identify people who had businesses before and lost their businesses.

Those, whose houses have been designated as moderately damaged, severely damaged, or demolished, as well as those with an urgent demolition decision, and having no registry of regular work in Türkiye's Social Security Institution (SGK) database or retirees whose monthly income per person in the household is less than 1/3 of the minimum wage fulfill the criteria for cash grants.

However, a challenge that the IFRC currently faces is that the funding for this year is more limited than that of last year.

"So we will be limited in how much we can do in livelihoods recovery if we do not raise additional funds. We are reaching out to our key donors to make sure we report back on the results we have achieved to date and also to highlight the continued needs," Thomson underlined, saying that cooperation is also ongoing with local and international media to continue to raise awareness.

Locally-led response

Thomson said that the IFRC implements its programs with the national Red Cross and Red Crescent societies, like the Turkish Red Crescent, but has also close coordination with the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) and the Ministry of Family and Social Services "to make sure that we know their plans and priorities, to understand their direction and their activities so that we are complementing those activities and not duplicating."

"As IFRC we believe that a locally-led response is highly important because those who come from Türkiye, the government, local authorities, communities, the Turkish Red Crescent know best how to serve the people who have been affected," Thomson said and underlined that the transfer of knowledge and skills is reciprocal.

Thomson expressed she had been tremendously inspired by the response to date.

"This is a disaster like none I have ever seen in my professional career of massive scale and magnitude. No one was going to be able to do it alone, even the most prepared government could not have been prepared for this disaster. It is a marathon, not a sprint. We are not done yet, there is work still needed and because of the scale, that solidarity needs to continue," she emphasized.

IFRC solidarity

The majority of the organization’s funds have come from other Red Cross and Red Crescent national societies, Thomson said, adding that 45 Red Cross and Red Crescent societies have raised funds for the response, from their governments in some cases.

"Around 86% of our appeal coverage to date came from these sister national societies. I think it is a testament to the solidarity of the federation in the IFRC family. Those partner national societies from around the world also contributed staff, search and rescue personnel in the early days of the response but also in-kind relief and support – sending blankets and tents, etc.," she continued.

Thomson also said that the Korean Red Cross representative is here in Türkiye working alongside the Turkish Red Crescent, having supported the construction of a container city.

On the other side, the IFRC is also undertaking projects for refugees affected by the earthquake. "About half of the refugees currently hosted in Türkiye were impacted as well by the earthquake who are living in the affected areas, so it was a certain double disaster in that sense for those folks who had already experienced a tremendous amount of loss and had already been in a struggle to rebuild their lives outside of their home country," Thomson said, indicating that the organization targets everyone.

In the quake's aftermath, Syrians have taken advantage of an offer from Turkish authorities to spend up to six months in the northwest without losing the chance to return. Many have gone back to check on relatives following the temblor that killed over 44,000 people in Türkiye and around 6,000 in Syria, most of them in the country's opposition-held northwest, according to the U.N. Others have temporarily moved in with relatives after their homes and businesses in Türkiye were destroyed in the quake.

She said that the Emergency Social Safety Net (ESSN) programme funded by DG ECHO has been implemented since 2016 and that the ESSN programme also did some specific initiatives in support of earthquake-affected families last year. "We tried to use all tools in our toolbox."

A special focus has also been given to female victims of the earthquake.

"We know that women, men, boys and girls have different needs following disasters. All of a sudden women find themselves as the sole parent in a family, or potentially now the only breadwinner. So we are looking in our livelihoods program how we can support them," Thomson added.

"We also have a cash assistance program for particularly vulnerable households to meet basic needs and that will continue in the year ahead. We have also done lots of work in terms of psychosocial support in partnership with the Turkish Red Crescent that has been on the ground providing that support in the container cities."

This week Türkiye marks the anniversary of the deadliest disaster in the country’s modern history. A total of 107,213 people were injured during the earthquakes which affected 14 million people while around 38,901 buildings were destroyed.