Helping Child Earthquake Victims Rebuild Their Dreams for the Future

Ece Çiftçi founded SosyalBen in 2013, when she was just 14 years old, with a dream of opening up employment opportunities in the creative industries and sports to children from remote areas of Turkey.

But after the earthquakes that struck Turkey and Syria in February 2023, the foundation found itself forced to provide an emergency response, supporting children aged 7-13 in southeastern Turkey. Today, the foundation works in 73 Turkish cities and 11 cities abroad.

But SosyalBen has not lost sight of Çiftçi’s original dream. While the organization focuses on addressing the trauma and immediate effects of disasters, it still tries to give children and their communities some hope for the future.

“Entrance exams to art schools or sports teams do not wait for children deprived of disasters,” explains Çiftçi. “We guide young people to dream and become stars in sports, arts and sciences.”

After the 2023 disaster, the foundation established two permanent skill development and psychosocial support centers in the cities of Adıyaman and Hatay in southeastern Turkey.

Ece Ciftçi at the Skills Development Center of SosyalBen Foundation in Hatay

According to Save the Children, the earthquakes – one of which measured 7.8 on the Richter scale – affected 6.2 million children in Turkey and Syria, leaving 660,000 children living in “tents and containers” in Turkey alone.

Under these circumstances, children and adolescents need private, safe spaces where they can socialize and play freely, says Delai Otkan, a Save the Children psychologist in Hatay. “With a disaster of this magnitude, children’s routines and environments change completely,” she says.

Zehra, a 23-year-old SosyalBen volunteer who has been with the organization since she arrived at her school in Hatay in 2014, says that participating in a project that gives young people some sense of normalcy has also helped her, as a victim of the earthquake.

She points out that there is very little infrastructure in Hatay, with “most children nowhere to go outside their schools” or outside the “container cities” they live in. So the Social Ben centre is a “safe, child-friendly space” where “they can start to process their earthquake-related trauma and get back to life.”

Since April, the foundation has been organising workshops in drawing, science and technology experiments, sports, farming and music performance – giving children opportunities to develop their skills and connect with their peers outside of school hours.

Invention workshop organized by SosyalBen Foundation in Hatay, where children learn the basics of science and get the chance to conduct a range of experiments Participants in an agricultural workshop in Adıyaman, where children learn about farming methods, irrigation, and growing fruits and vegetables

This helps “compensate for the loss of spaces where children feel free and prioritized,” says Çiftçi. The SosyalBen centre encourages a range of activities, from playing to growing plants and vegetables.

A 12-year-old girl who took part in the art workshops in Adiyaman told volunteers that her ambition was to become an engineer. The sessions then gave her the opportunity to try her hand at making designs, models and experiments.

The children’s progress in the workshops is tracked over six weeks, says Çiftçi. After that, “we will help those with special talents and interests access sports academies or conservatories, where they can specialize as artists, scientists or athletes.”

Research suggests that the cumulative effects of disasters on children can be profound and long-lasting. Harry Patrinos, an education economist at the World Bank, notes that traumatic events such as “separation from peers, loss of parental jobs…have economic and social costs.” [on children’s development] “Which may continue into adulthood.”

Patrinos points to research, for example, on the effects of the October 2005 Kashmir earthquake on children. This research suggests that the damage caused by natural disasters can continue into adulthood. Specifically, disasters can result in a loss of 15 percent of a person’s lifetime earnings.

The International Play Association, a non-governmental organization founded in 1961 in Copenhagen, also points out that play is crucial for children in conflict and disaster zones for health, development and survival, because it helps create a sense of normalcy and routine.

Esang Awuah, head of advocacy at the Global Education Initiative at the University of Oxford, stresses the importance of creative activities in general in giving children “ways to express themselves and process their experiences.” These activities, she says, equip children with emotional and social skills—such as empathy, compassion, and conflict resolution—that help them relate to others in their daily lives.

SosyalBen uses psychologists to organize workshops that help participants feel in control of their lives, learn how to stay in the moment, and express and regulate their emotions. Most workshops include breathing exercises and play sessions where children can act out their feelings and experiences.

Drawing workshops help children develop manual skills as well as their creativity.

“Here, we provide psychological first aid,” says Ayse Berem, 26, a psychologist and head of general operations at SosyalBen. “We identify trauma and give children the tools to process it, and in very serious cases, we help them access further psychological support.”

We identify trauma, give children the tools to process it and in very serious cases help them access further psychological support.

The Foundation also provides opportunities for young people to work as teachers or mentors.

Serkan, 35, a sports workshop trainer at SosyalBen, previously worked at a school in Adıyaman that was destroyed by the earthquakes. “We know the needs of children and families very well because almost everyone who works here has experienced earthquakes and worked with children before,” he says.

Adıyaman and Hatay still have a long way to go before they come close to their pre-earthquake state. Large parts of both cities remain in ruins and they suffer from ongoing problems with water, electricity and transportation. Still, Serkan believes Social Ben’s presence gives people confidence that long-term change is possible. “It’s very valuable for parents and children to know that we will be here for months and years to come.”

As SosyalBen looks to open four new centres by the end of this year, Çiftçi sees raising future-oriented children as essential if cities are to thrive. “It will take some time here before things return to normal,” she says. “But with continued support, these children can become global citizens who can move their cities forward.”

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