While more than 50 thousand people lost their lives and more than half a million buildings were damaged in the cities affected by the Kahramanmaraş earthquakes,civil society organizations operating in the region suffered both loss of life and material damage.
In the report we prepared through a meeting with 172 association representatives in Adıyaman, Hatay, Kahramanmaraş and Malatya, it became clear that the most important problem after the earthquake in the 4 cities affected by the earthquake was the material damage. The offices of most of the organizations were severely damaged by the earthquake and their inventory became unusable.
The report pointed out that organizations, which usually have a small number of members and mostly no paid staff, lost members and staff due to the earthquake, while volunteer work in the organizations increased after the earthquake.
With the earthquake, the CSOs' areas of work lost their priority
While the results of the study showed that half of the organizations could not hold board meetings after the earthquake and almost half of them could not continue their activities, it was found that the work areas of the organizations lost their priority with the new needs created by the earthquake.
While the research results showed that the CSOs in the cities affected by the earthquakes were extremely negatively affected by the destruction caused by the earthquakes, it was found that this situation reached a level that threatened the existence of the CSOs to a significant extent.
The results of the investigation have shown that the activities of many CSOs have effectively ended and the organizations trying to survive after the earthquake are continuing their activities with difficulties.
While the survey found that 40 percent of CSOs operating in 4 provinces were unable to continue their activities, the data showed that the organizations were trying to continue their activities under difficult conditions.
CSOs struggle to obtain human and financial resources
While the study found that organizations received virtually no support after the earthquake, a clear majority of the organizations participating in the study felt that they were unable to continue their activities due to financial inadequacies.
While the most important problems cited after the earthquake were lack of office/work space, creation of financial resources and communication, the percentage of organizations that said they had no problems after the earthquake was only 1%.
The situation of CSOs worsened after the earthquake
This rapid assessment study, which was conducted with 172 associations, found that the situation of CSOs deteriorated after the earthquake while also revealing that a long-term and structured perspective should be implemented to revitalize the organizations in the region, increase their level of organization, meet the institutional needs of these organizations and get them to contribute to solving the problems in the region.
Click to read the full report.