Local Coordination Strengthens Response to Earthquake in Izmir, Turkey
By Adım Adım Izmir and Disaster Platform Turkey
The date was 30 October 2020, a Friday. As the clocks showed 14:51, Izmir shook with an earthquake of 6.9 on the Richter scale. The third-largest city of Turkey on the Western coast was unprepared for such a disaster. During the first hours, everyone’s priority was to reach a safe destination. People rushed to their cars and the traffic became a nightmare while first responders were trying to make their way to the affected neighborhoods of the city. As soon as this was broadcasted, people pulled their cars aside and made way for the search and rescue teams.
Local civil society organizations to Izmir connected immediately with one another and shared information about the affected neighborhoods. They agreed to mobilize their volunteers and resources to be able to respond to the immediate needs of those affected.
One of those civil society initiatives taking the lead in the response was the Izmir branch of Adım Adım, a volunteer-based social initiative in Turkey to which our member, Support to Life, belongs. The initiative was established in 2008 to introduce the concept of the ‘charity run’ in Turkey.
The search and rescue teams within the Adım Adım network were on the ground and provided the NGO community in Izmir with real-time information on the damage and the needs of the affected population.
For the past 6 years, volunteer runners had been meeting every Wednesday at Fuar Kültürpark in Izmir city center for regular training. Because of the strong network, Adım Adım had developed with NGOs, their volunteers, and the municipality over the years, they were able to mobilize a task force to help out with the relief effort. With the task force established, flows of information were centralized, compiled, and tasks were identified and assigned to best organize the relief work.
By 22:00 that night, hundreds of volunteers were actively involved in the relief operation. The aim was to ensure that no one spent that first night without shelter, food, or water. Needs were listed and shared with a large network of civil society organizations, individuals, and companies. By midnight, volunteers had picked up basic products contributed to help those in need from the homes of those who wanted to donate, and by 1 am, they were being distributed to families in need. The teams on the ground realized that there was also a need for psychological support. 30 volunteers provided psychological support as basic products and commodities were being distributed.
The task force asked the first group of volunteers to go back home by six in the morning. The task force came together to see how better to organize themselves in the coming days and weeks. Despite being a large network, Adım Adım did not have a database of capacities. They quickly put together a Google drive document in which everyone in the network listed their assets (cars, motorcycles, and bikes) as well as their professions. It was astounding to see that there was a wide range of experts in the network that could be included in the relief effort as needed.
Local volunteers and organizations had immediately engaged in the relief effort. The day after they were joined by colleagues from the Disaster Platform, a national NGO network for disaster management, who had arrived in Izmir to support the effort. Through its members, the Disaster Platform organized a coworking space in Izmir city center as the hub for NGOs engaged in the response. The civil society network available in Izmir became stronger with the inclusion of the Disaster Platform, its members, and its many volunteers from all over the country.
The next day at the NGO hub, plans were made to assess needs, stock the basic products that were arriving, and organize distributions. An assessment form was finalized, uploaded, and then shared with volunteers who would disperse all over Izmir to reach those in need. A group of 30 volunteers on bicycles were particularly effective in bypassing traffic and quickly reaching out to affected families to collect their needs. In eight hours, they managed to scan a large area.
During the first week, so many basic products contributed by the rest of the country to help those in need had been delivered to Izmir that hundreds of volunteers needed to be mobilized. Dozens of volunteers also did a great job in carrying out psychosocial support activities with children and youth in tent camps. As affected families were moved from tents to temporary homes provided by the municipality, local civil society mobilized by Adım Adım and the Disaster Platform supplied household items and furniture from donations from individuals and companies.
Civil society organizations based in Izmir were happy about being able to quickly mobilize their networks and initiate the relief effort. They felt stronger after they were joined by colleagues from the Disaster Platform. With its experience in disaster relief, members of the Disaster Platform consolidated and guided local civil society in becoming better coordinated. The Disaster Platform stepping in led to a doubling of synergies, capacities, and effectiveness of the earthquake response.
For a platform operational at the national level, this collaboration with local civil society had an unprecedented impact. The speed at which affected people were identified, needs were assessed, basic products and commodities were received, classified, and stored, distributions were carried out, and the ease with which local authorities were accessed was unmatched. Before the end of the first week, the civil society support mechanism was fully operational. The diversity of civil society organizations, their focus, and their expertise, combined with the relentless energy and capacity of hundreds of volunteers resulted in meeting the needs of all vulnerable groups affected by the earthquake in Izmir.
This synergy created a tireless group of organizations and volunteers who worked day and night to ensure needs were well understood, basic products and commodities reached the affected area, and all those in need received the needed items. The Izmir relief experience showed that as long as civil society, both local and national, is well-coordinated and remains in close communication with one another, with public authorities and the private sector, significant funds can be raised and many volunteers can be mobilized to help with the relief effort.