In a prefab planted in the middle of a muddy wasteland in Antioch, children are playing. Five families, victims of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria, live in this white plastic shed. In one room, a child is sleeping on an old mattress. According to Unicef, more than seven million miners were affected by the earthquake. Many now live in the cold in tents, without hygiene or education.
“Here, 10 people sleep, including three children, Ahmad says. This Syrian lived in a building just opposite the vacant lot, with his family. The one who sleeps there is three years old, the other two years old. And then there’s a little baby…” He installed everyone in this improvised camp, after the collapse of his building, in one of the Turkish cities most affected by the disaster.
Children roam the wasteland
Near a stove made with debris, Nessrine, a 24-year-old mother, hugs her baby. The baby girl was born two days before the earthquake. “At the moment, I’m breastfeeding. But I’m afraid I won’t have any more milk. How can you hold out like this in the cold, with the rain? My baby cries a lot, almost night and day. It’s my daughter, I’m so scared for her. I could die for her.”
All day, the youngest children roam the vacant lot. They salvaged a few toys from the rubble. Elif, 13, stays locked up most of the time. The girl was injured in the leg in the earthquake. “That night I tried to wake up my brother. He didn’t get up, so I pulled him by the leg. I won’t soon forget that moment… I was so scared . It will remain etched in my memory”she says. “Afterwards, we stayed four days in the street without eating. Since then, I have had nightmares.”
“I’m terrified of another earthquake. I’m afraid to close my eyes.”
Elif, 13 years oldat franceinfo
Elif, like her siblings, had to learn to live without electricity or access to running water. Ahmed, their father, is very worried about the next few weeks: “We need shelter, and then we don’t have a shower here. We use the rotten water over there in the pond. Look how dirty it is. With the children, we’re going to get sick.”
On a rack, children’s clothes dry near a cemetery, where men are still digging a new grave.