My boy still wears his coat to bed in case we have to flee another deadly earthquake in the night

50,783 were killed in Turkey and at least 5,900 in Syria after the devastating earthquakes struck (Picture: Chris McGrath/Getty Images)

Mustafa Alokoud’s 14-year-old son Noureddin sleeps in his jacket. It’s a trauma response to the fatal earthquakes that hit Turkey and Syria this time last year.

The family of four were fast asleep in their beds in Gaziantep, southeastern Turkey, when the quake hit in the early hours of 6 February 2023.

‘My wife woke me up. I grabbed my younger son Diya, who was two, and we ran down the stairs out of the building,’ Mustafa tells Metro.co.uk. ‘The building wasn’t shaking, it was dancing. When we got outside, there was snow on the ground and we were all barefoot.’

The family stood there shivering and shocked until it was safe to go back into their home, when 40 minutes later, another quake hit.

‘It was a horrible situation. Everything we had learned about how to stay safe in an earthquake, I didn’t use. You’re told to go under a table, but I ran from the building, shoeless. We just panicked. When it happens; you can’t control yourself. It was terrifying.’

Thankfully, the Alokoud family were safe. But now a year on, Noureddin still puts on his coat to go to bed, so he can be warm and ready should the earth rock again.

The quakes caused widespread destruction in southern Turkey and northern Syria and killed more than 50,000 people. (Photo by Burak Kara/Getty Images) Photographer: Burak Kara Provider: Getty Images Source: Getty Images Europe

Around 300,000 buildings, including blocks of flats, hospitals and schools, were destroyed, alongside vital infrastructure (Picture: Chris McGrath/Getty Images)

Mustafa counts himself lucky following the 7.8 magnitude quake; his elderly and disabled neighbours weren’t able to get out as easily.

The building next door – damaged by the first tremors – collapsed and 37 people lost their lives.

50,783 were killed in Turkey and at least 5,900 in Syria – making it the deadliest earthquake globally since Haiti in 2010. Around 300,000 buildings, including blocks of flats, hospitals and schools, were destroyed, alongside vital infrastructure.

Substantial shaking was felt over an area larger than the UK and Ireland and in the three months that followed there were more than 30,000 aftershocks, including 570 in the first 24 hours.

A volunteer searches for animals in the rubble of an earthquake-devasted building in Jindayris, in the rebel-held Syrian province of Aleppo. (Picture: RAMI AL SAYED/AFP via Getty Images)

50,783 were killed in Turkey and at least 5,900 in Syria – making it the deadliest earthquake globally since Haiti in 2010. (Credits: EPA)

Darius Zietek, Action Against Hunger Country Director for Syria, explains how the earthquake came after more than a decade of conflict which has left more than 16 million in humanitarian need: ‘Every year we face water crisis, climate change, currency collapse, an economic situation deteriorating, people being jobless and 90% living in poverty.

‘Imagine having electricity, only one hour per day. And it can be, for example, at midnight. What kind of life do you have? You cannot store your food in the fridge, you cannot send your children to a good school to get a decent education and there’s no access to medicine.’

One year post the devastating earthquake, communities are actively rebuilding their lives (Picture: DEC)

Darius Zietek says Syria was already struggling a decade before the earthquake (Picture: Jacobo Medrano)

So when the earthquake hit, a terrible situation was made unimaginably worse. People who had little ended up with nothing, the lucky left living on the street, sleeping in cars and tents.

The initial aid effort concentrated on setting up makeshift shelters in any public building available. Darius remembers visiting one set up in a school: ‘It was bloody cold and very basic. You just had corridors, rooms, doors, windows, and nothing else. And you see people lying on the floor very on very thin mattresses.

‘I remember passing a lady, she must have been eighty, lying on the floor on a blanket and shivering. I looked at this poor woman; she had worked her entire life. She should have a bit of comfort. But she had lost everything. Her days were coming to an end and there she was on the cold floor. I will never forget that.’

People waiting for news of their loved ones, after they were in one of the collapsed buildings in Hatay last February. (Picture: Burak Kara/Getty Images)

Roula will have to restore her house for a second time since fleeing from war (Picture: DEC)

Roula* lost her home and set up her extended family in school with the aid of Action Against Hunger where they received cash, food and hygiene products. The 56-year old says: ‘When the earthquake happened, we ran away with nothing, I barely was able to put on my clothes. When we came back a few hours later, we were shocked how the house was damaged: all the walls cracked, and now it needs serious rehabilitation.’

The quake made an already-difficult situation much worse for Roula, who worked as a cleaner in a school, making just £65 a month. They’d already had to flee their home due to heavy fighting, and when they returned in 2017, they found their house to be little more than an empty structure, doors and windows blown off and furniture destroyed. She painstakingly restored it over the years, until it was livable again. Then, the quake hit and she will have to rebuild it again.

The family’s house is one of more than 5,000 that were severely damaged or destroyed in Aleppo after the earthquake.

In February last year, an appeal for help by Metro led to readers putting their hands in their pockets and donated to the DEC Turkey-Syria Earthquake Appeal, which raised over £150 million for 15 leading UK aid charities. The cash funded water supplies, emergency food parcels and vouchers, hygiene equipment, blankets and clothing and vital medications.

An appeal for help by Metro led to readers putting their hands in their pockets and donated to the DEC Turkey-Syria Earthquake Appeal, which raised over £150 million for 15 leading UK aid charities (Picture: EPA)

Now, Action Against Hunger are providing agricultural support for farmers, rebuilding schools and setting up bakeries so people can buy bread and rebuild their own businesses.

Selin* and her daughter Zehra* live in a village in Adiyaman province in Turkey which was badly affected by the earthquakes.

Selin received a package from Save the Children which included a heater, plugs, pillows, insulation tape, and bedding, alongside hygiene products and vital household equipment like plates, pots and pans after the quake.

Selin and her daughter Zehra’s fear of another earthquake left them living in a tent (Picture: DEC)

She explains: ‘In the beginning, there were many aftershocks, so for the first three months we constantly lived in a tent.

‘‘Of course, there are people who lost their homes, who had very difficult times in tents. Mentally it’s taken its toll. We are villagers here, we are farmers; life continues here. Psychologically, we are always living with the fear of another earthquake.’

Save the Children has reached nearly 295,000 people like Selin with assistance to date – with a target of 500,000. But the need continues. In Turkey, 2.5 million children — many of them Syrian refugees — faced an increased risk of poverty, child labour, or child marriage in the aftermath of the disaster.

Makayla Palazzo, advocacy communications director for Save the Children, tells metro.co.uk that many are still unaware of the scale of the monumental crisis.

Makayla Palazzo says people are still unaware of aftermath of the crisis (Picture: DEC)

She says: ‘In total 9.1 million people were impacted, which is about the population of London, over an area that is the size of the whole country of Germany. With a disaster of that scale, even one year later, things aren’t much better than they were this time a year ago and the needs are still very great as we continue to respond.

‘Families are still trying to piece their lives back together. There’s an estimated 761,000 people who are still displaced and living in temporary settlements like tents and container houses. Meanwhile children are missing out on education and their mental wellbeing is suffering.

‘We hear about children still having nightmares, children acting out and showing the classic signs of distress. And people in rural areas still have major issues accessing water.’

Mutaba was too scared to go back to her work in a factory (Picture: DEC)

Like Selin, former fashion designer Mutaba, 33, lost her home in the earthquakes and lived in a tent for months. Now she is living in a shipping container with eight members of her extended family and has taken part in a women’s co-operative project run by Oxfam/KEDV which provides training, counselling and an income for 100 women who come here every week.

They are learning a range of skills including embroidery, sewing machine skills, basket making and knitted toys thanks to funding from DEC and others.

She says: ‘After the earthquake I had a fear of being inside and of going to the factory where I worked. I couldn’t go. I’m scared. I can’t overcome my fear; I can’t stay in closed spaces. This project helps me both financially and psychologically.’

But for many, the psychological scars remain. Serious issues such as addiction and suicide are on the increase in the region, while many struggle with the effects of conflict combined with depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder.

After years of crisis, the community are traumatised (Picture: DEC)

Mustafa is now working to provide stricken people with the help they need to recover through the Hope Revival Organisation, of which he is executive director.

As part of the programme, he is helping older and disabled people get the physical and mental health help they need after the earthquakes highlighted how marginalised and under supported they are.

Mustafa adds: ‘We are working on protection, mental health and community resilience. After years of protracted crisis, the community are traumatised. Their resilience is not good. The community has a problem with trust, they have low self esteem and they feel there is no hope for the future.’

Working with the community and religious groups, delivering training and education, Mustafa’s organisation is helping people understand mental health and in doing so, fight stigma. ‘We have had many success stories,’ he says.

To find out the many ways your donations are helping, visit dec.org.uk/turkey-syria

* Names have been changed

Follow Metro across our social channels, on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram

Share your views in the comments below

MORE : I travelled to Turkey to help after the earthquake – here’s what it was like

MORE : ‘We were playing, then we heard the gunshots’. What it’s like to be a child of war

MORE : The fake MMR claims that struck fear into generations of parents