The organization fears that “several thousand children” died in the two powerful earthquakes that hit the region. “Children and families desperately need additional support,” added Unicef.
UNICEF fears the worst. If miracles sometimes occur, more than seven million children are affected by the devastating earthquakes which hit Turkey and Syria, assured Unicef, Tuesday, February 14. “In Turkey, the total number of children living in the ten provinces affected by the two earthquakes amounted to 4.6 million children. In Syria, 2.5 million children are affected”said James Elder, a spokesperson for the organization in Geneva.
>> Earthquakes in Turkey and Syria: follow the latest information on the situation in the region
“Children and families are in desperate need of additional support. Many staff from our local partner organizations and frontline responders have been killed, injured, displaced, and their offices and equipment destroyed”, he added. UNICEF is concerned that “several thousand children were killed”. These figures, explained the spokesperson, have not been verified but it is clear that they “will continue to increase”.
Develop psychosocial support
According to Unicef, tens of thousands of families, living outside in open areas, are exposed to the cold. “Every day there are reports of increasing numbers of children suffering from hypothermia and respiratory infections”, said James Elder. He points out that families are sleeping with children in the streets, shopping malls, schools, mosques, bus stations and under bridges.
In Turkey, Unicef, in coordination with the Ministry of Family and Social Services, has deployed social workers to hospitals to help identify unaccompanied and separated children. The organization has also launched ten new helplines for unaccompanied and separated children.
Alongside these efforts, Unicef is also working with partners to provide affected children with psychosocial support. In Syria, “every child under the age of 12 has known only conflict, violence or displacement, some children have been moved six or seven times”recalled James Elder.