Habitat Association has, since its founding thirty years ago, worked to promote sustainable development, enhance social capacity, and support impactful projects through robust partnerships with other organizations, including NGOs like itself, in today’s digital age. Together with our more than seven thousand volunteers, our association has served roughly five million people across all of Türkiye’s eighty-one provinces, with a presence in villages, cities, education, entrepreneurship, sustainability, and social equality.
Marked by growing global instability, insecurity, inequality, and moral decay, today’s world has become a breeding ground for social decline and economic uncertainty. Given this somber trajectory, creating a sustainable system and fostering opportunities for public, private, and civil society partnerships is of paramount importance. Individuals, institutions, and societies must all be able to adapt to these rapidly changing times—times plagued by increasingly complex social issues and security issues. We found that urban resilience—the capacity of a city’s inhabitants to adapt to abrupt and unexpected changes—was lacking in areas directly or indirectly affected by the earthquake. The Türkiye–Syria earthquakes that struck Kahramanmaraş on 6 February 2023 exposed, once again, the glaring deficiencies in Türkiye’s urban resilience.
Impacting eleven provinces in Türkiye and several more in Syria, the aforementioned earthquakes affected twenty-three million people. Initial estimates puts the total damage at 84.06 billion USD—70.75 billion USD in housing damages, 10.4 billion USD in national income, and 2.91 billion USD in lost workdays—and more recently at 104 billion USD. An effective response to a disaster of this magnitude can only be mounted through the coordinated efforts between the public, private, and civil sectors. Only through such close collaboration can an effective strategy be developed to aid affected populations, to repair the damages incurred, and to rebuild beleaguered societies. Local governments, the private sector, and civil society institutions mobilized their resources and manpower to undertake search and rescue operations. The Habitat Association, in partnership with EnerjiSA and Viveka, helped to expedite search and rescue operations in Hatay one day after the initial earthquakes by mapping affected areas and deploying heat-sensitive drones to locate individuals trapped beneath the rubble. Following the conclusion of emergency search and rescue operations, we worked with public institutions and civil society organizations to provide shelter, food, water, and essential healthcare services to those affected by the ongoing disaster. Our association, in collaboration with the Business Council for Sustainable Development Türkiye, furthermore partnered with the Wilo Group to have water purification devices installed in twelve villages in Hatay to solve the crisis of clean drinking water.
By identifying damaged structures and formulating a comprehensive roadmap to guide subsequent efforts, we have transitioned into the medium-term phase of the disaster response. Efforts over the next one to three years will concentrate on rebuilding infrastructure, providing psychosocial support to affected individuals, and launching assistance and incentive programs to stimulate employment and kick-start economic development.
Following the Türkiye–Syria earthquakes, we at the Habitat Association reassessed all of our ongoing projects and redirected all of our resources to support those in the earthquake zone. We devised short-, medium-, and long-term strategies to foster recovery and growth in the earthquake zone, closely coordinating with local organizations and project partners to shore up an effective response to the diverse needs and demands of different target groups. We first performed detailed needs analyses for children, adolescents, parents, teachers, business owners, and entrepreneurs. We then sprang into action, transforming designated safe zones into community centers in Hatay, Kahramanmaraş, Adıyaman, Malatya, and surrounding provinces hosting displaced individuals. Together with our partners, we likewise established workspaces for all individuals and business owners requiring such facilities.
Together with Meta, the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges of Türkiye (TOBB), and the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC), the Habitat Association opened Station Adana. With support from Türkiye’s Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD), the Habitat Association, alongside the Turkish Enterprise and Business Confederation (TÜRKONFED) and the Federation of Industrial Associations (SEDEFED), established the container city KASABA in Hatay. To promote local growth, the Hatay Metropolitan Municipality partnered with GEN Türkiye, TOBB, ICC Türkiye, the Habitat Association, and the Women Entrepreneurs Association of Turkey (KAGIDER) to open Station Hatay.
In partnership with the Vodafone Turkey Foundation, the Habitat Association set up container classrooms in Adıyaman, Kahramanmaraş, Hatay, and Malatya as part of its ongoing the Coding Tomorrow project. These classrooms support social reintegration through technology-focused education for children aged seven to fourteen. We also dispatched mobile education vehicles to rural areas without schools to provide underserved children with science and coding kits.
Hundreds of young people in the earthquake zone attended Habitat Summer Camps organized in collaboration with local governments and private businesses. These camps provided training to increase awareness, workshops to develop soft skills, and engaging social activities to promote community development and personal development. To further revitalize the socioeconomic life of the areas affected, the Habitat Association provided local businesses, small and medium sized enterprises, and entrepreneurs with grants and mentoring programs. Through the Women’s Cooperatives Support Program From Labor to Basket, the Habitat Association delivered 390,000 TRY worth of machinery, equipment, supplies, and raw materials to thirteen women’s cooperatives. Additionally, capacity-building initiatives, such as idea marathons, brought awareness programs and workshops aimed at enhancing local resilience to the earthquake zone. The Fazlan Vitrinde (i.e., Your Excess on Display) campaign promoted sustainable fashion by collaborating with Heartish, Swatchloop, Bangu, and Organic Sisters Toys to repurpose waste garments from the disaster zone into bags, toys, and new clothing ideas.
As Türkiye completes her centennial year, we at the Habitat Association promise to continue its work with unwavering determination and commitment, fully embracing our responsibility to act as a driving force for transformation, future progress, social impact, and sustainable development.
* During the design of this project, we sadly received the news of the passing of Mr. Sezai Hazır. We extend our deepest condolences to his family, loved ones, and the Habitat Association family, and may he rest in peace.
1 ARUP. (2014). City Resilience Framework. The Rockefeller Foundation.
2 TÜRKKONFED. (2023). Kahramanmaraş Depremi Afet Еn Değerlendirme Durum Raporu
3 Kadıoğlu, M. (2011). Afet Yönetimi Beklenilmeyeni Beklemek, En Kötüsünü Yönetmek. İstanbul: T.C. Marmara Belediyeler Birliği Yayını.