Turkey earthquake: Community kitchen near epicentre helps provide local dishes for people left homeless
The aftermath of two powerful earthquakes which rocked Turkey and Syria has left many people homeless and exacerbated the risk of a widespread food and nutrition crisis, charities say.
Many were forced to live in cars and temporary tents, with no access to basic amenities such as showers or toilets, after the quake and its aftershocks last month destroyed, or catastrophically damaged, at least 156,000 buildings in Turkey and killed more than 50,000 people across Turkey and Syria.
Charities rushed to provide hot meals, loaves of bread and fresh water.
Among them, Action Against Hunger – which is supported by the Disaster Emergencies Committee – distributed ready-to-eat rations sourced from nearby cities including canned chickpeas, chicken, tuna, vegetables and fruit in disaster hotspots in southeast Turkey. Overall, Action Against Hunger has supplied 2,500kg of dry food and nearly 2,000kg of fresh food.
But while the food baskets are vital in helping survivors keep their strength up and stay healthy, they do not always contain food typically consumed by people in the region.
In the town of Beyoglu, near the southern city of Kahramanmaras and close to the epicentres of the tremors, Action Against Hunger helped set up a kitchen to provide local dishes and fresh food in a community centre next to a football field where people are camping after losing their homes.
The kitchen also helps people rebuild their sense of community in a time of crisis, says Ana Mora Segura, a spokesperson for Action Against Hunger who has been in Turkey since the earthquake struck.
She tells Sky News: “The places people have known their whole lives are either damaged or gone, which is very disruptive, so being able to get together and act on their own to provide for themselves is the first step of rebuilding the community.”
The kitchen has been providing 3,000 people a day with meals containing ingredients typically found in the Mediterranean diet, including fresh foods and local dishes containing oil, olives, yoghurt, fruit, vegetables and grains.
It also provides a sense of reassurance for those still suffering from the disaster.
“For me, this community kitchen provides us with security, because we know we’re getting hot food at a certain time every day and aid on a regular basis,” says one 20-year-old Turkish man who has been staying in the tents and using the kitchen since the earthquake.
“We also feel very safe in the tents because of the security forces in the area.”
Volunteers distribute food to families. Pic: Bradley Secker/DEC
Providing local food gives people sense of normality
While the foods found in a typical relief kit are much appreciated by those affected by the emergency, providing local foods has helped give people a sense of normality, says Cristina Izquierdo, the nutrition and health coordinator for Action Against Hunger’s emergency team.
Read more:
Harrowing pictures of the Turkey-Syria earthquake
Is more aid being sent to Turkey than to Syria?
“These are some of the most resilient people,” she tells Sky News. “Some people bring everything they have to others… That sense of supporting each other really brings hope.
“People are grateful for the fact they are alive and are ready to support their community.”
The community centre also supports displaced people in other ways, through donated clothes, heaters and hygiene items such as sanitary pads, soap, baby wipes and nappies.
Akif left his restaurant in Soke and travelled with his friends to help set up the community kitchen. Pic: Ana Mora Segura/Action Against Hunger
‘I have work to do here’
One of the volunteers in the kitchen is Akif, who, as news of the disaster spread, heard help was needed urgently in Beyoglu, where a large number of houses were destroyed.
Leaving his restaurant in Soke, a city on Turkey’s Aegean coast, he travelled with his friends to help set up the community kitchen.
“My friends tell me to come back home, but my family is safe, that’s why I came,” Akif says. “I have work to do here.”
Akif and other volunteers also prepared packages to distribute in the nearby mountain villages and to families that have stayed near their collapsed homes.
Food aid being distributed by Action Against Hunger. Pics: Bradley Secker/DEC
Rebuilding a sense of community in a time of crisis
Ms Izquierdo says people were “very humble” and initially only asked for rice, but they were then asked about their local diet and the items they would like to see the charity help provide, including fresh food and vegetables, but also products for children such as yoghurt and other dairy products.
A range of dishes have been served, such as Turkish rice with sehriye, a type of pasta similar to vermicelli, and chickpea and tomato soup.
But Action Against Hunger warns the risk of widespread food insecurity has soared in the aftermath of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria, with access to food becoming even more difficult than it was before the disaster as many people have lost their homes, jobs and livelihoods. People in Syria also have to contend with the ongoing effects of the country’s 12-year civil war on top of the damage wrought by the earthquake.
A new aid system has opened its first distribution centres in Gaza, according to a US-backed organisation dealing with supplies.
The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) began its operations in the territory on Monday, following the resignation of its director, Jake Wood, over its independence.
Gaza’s 2.3m population has been pushed towards famine by Israel’s almost three-month blockade.
Boxes of aid to be distributed across Rafah. Pic: Reuters.
The GHF said lorryloads of food – it did not say how many – had been delivered to its hubs, and distribution to Palestinians had begun.
“More trucks with aid will be delivered tomorrow, with the flow of aid increasing each day,” it said in a statement.
The controversial group, backed by Israel and the United States, has been rejected by the United Nations and other aid groups.
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People line up for food in Gaza
UN agencies and major aid groups have refused to cooperate with the GHF.
They claim Israel is weaponising food, and the new distribution system will be ineffective and lead to further displacement of Palestinians.
They also argue the GHF will fail to meet local needs, and violates humanitarian principles that prohibit a warring party from controlling humanitarian assistance.
In the meantime, scores of Palestinians in Gaza, like Islam Abu Taima, have resorted to searching through rubbish to find food.
Palestinians are having to search through rubbish to find food
She found a small pile of cooked rice, scraps of bread, and a box with a few pieces of cheese inside it – which she said she will serve to her five children.
“We’re dying of hunger,” she told the Associated Press news agency.
“If we don’t eat, we’ll die.”
Islam Abu Taeima finds a piece of bread in a pile of rubbish in Gaza City. Pic: AP.
It is unclear how many of the GHF’s aid trucks will enter Gaza.
It claims it will reach one million Palestinians by the end of the week.
There are questions, however, over who is funding it and how it will work.
Trucks transporting aid for Palestinians in Rafah. Pic: Reuters.
It has been set up as part of an Israeli plan – rather than a UN distribution effort.
Israel, which suggested a similar plan earlier this year, has said it will not be involved in distributing the aid but supported the plan and would provide security.
It says aid deliveries into Gaza are taken by Hamas instead of going to civilians.
Aid groups, however, say there is no evidence of this happening on a systemic basis.
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Israel began to allow a limited amount of food into Gaza last week – after a blockade that prevented food, medicine, fuel and other goods from entering the Palestinian enclave.
A letter has been signed by hundreds of judges and lawyers calling on the UK government to impose trade sanctions on Israel.
It also calls for Israeli ministers to be sanctioned and the suspension of Israel from the UN over “serious breaches of international law”.
“Genocide is being perpetrated in Gaza or that, at a minimum, there is a serious risk of genocide,” the letter says.
The Israeli government has repeatedly dismissed allegations of genocide in Gaza.
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More than 52,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel launched its ground invasion of Gaza, according to the Hamas-run health ministry, following the deadly attacks by the militant group on Israel, which killed 1,200 people and saw around 250 people taken hostage.
The health ministry’s figures do not differentiate between civilians and fighters in Gaza.
King Charles and Queen Camilla are being urged to use their visit to Canada to seek an apology for the abuse of British children.
Campaigners have called on them to pursue an apology for the “dire circumstances” suffered by so-called “Home Children” over decades.
More than 100,000 were shipped from orphan homes in the UK to Canada between 1869 and 1948 with many used as cheap labour, typically as farm workers and domestic servants. Many were subject to mistreatment and abuse.
Canada has resisted calls to follow the UK and Australia in apologising for its involvement in child migrant schemes.
King Charles and Mark Carney on Monday. Pic: PA
Campaigners for the Home Children say the royal visit presents a “great opportunity” for a change of heart.
“I would ask that King Charles uses his trip to request an apology,” John Jefkins told Sky News.
John’s father Bert was one of 115,000 British Home Children transported to Canada, arriving in 1914 with his brother Reggie.
“It’s really important for the Home Children themselves and for their descendants,” John said.
“It’s something we deserve and it’s really important for the healing process, as well as building awareness of the experience of the Home Children.
“They were treated very, very badly by the Canadian government at the time. A lot of them were abused, they were treated horribly. They were second-class citizens, lepers in a way.”
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The forgotten legacy of British children sent to Canada
John Jefkins
John added: “I think the King’s visit provides a great opportunity to reinforce our campaign and to pursue an apology because we’re part of the Commonwealth and King Charles is a new Head of the Commonwealth meeting a new Canadian prime minister. It’s a chance, for both, to look at the situation with a fresh eye.
“There’s much about this visit that looks on our sovereignty and who we are as Canadians, rightly so.
“I think it’s also right that in contemplating the country we built, we focus on the people who built it, many in the most trying of circumstances.”
The issue was addressed by the then Prince of Wales during a tour of Canada in May 2022. He said at the time: “We must find new ways to come to terms with the darker and more difficult aspects of the past.”
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King Charles and Queen Camilla are on a two-day visit to Canada.
On Tuesday, the King will deliver the Speech from the Throne to open the 45th session of Canada’s parliament.
Camilla was made Patron of Barnardo’s in 2016. The organisation sent tens of thousands of Home Children to Canada. She took on the role, having served as president since 2007.
Buckingham Palace has been contacted for comment.
A spokesperson for the Canadian government said: “The government of Canada is committed to keeping the memory of the British Home Children alive.
“Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada deeply regrets this unjust and discriminatory policy, which was in place from 1869 to 1948. Such an approach would have no place in modern Canada, and we must learn from past mistakes.”
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