There have been a number of serious earthquakes happening in Türkiye since the 6th of February 2023. Starting from Kahramanmaraş, 10 cities have felt the direct impact of the earthquake, however, every inch of Türkiye has been affected. 46.104 people lost their lives, while 230 thousand buildings were damaged in only 31 days. Türkiye has been consistently working to provide necessities to those in need. People from the same neighborhoods got together and loaded trucks with loads of clothes to distribute to those impacted. Schools, hospitals, and malls organized days for people to bring in needed products for donation.
There is a prominent need for hygiene products for the people of Türkiye. While there are steps being taken to supply these needs; for example, Kotex, a pad brand, donated 1 million pads to people in the earthquake areas; it is still not enough. With the lack of hygiene products, highly contagious diseases have been able to spread throughout the country. Field toilets aren't common and public bathrooms are not in the right conditions to be used. The water isn’t clean enough, and thus bad odors have been spreading. Even though people and organizations are doing their best to meet these needs, products such as pads and other menstrual products are still in need.
A famous female actor, Elçin Sangu, spoke out about her concerns for people who hesitated to use pads on her social media accounts. Sangu stated, “Taking pads isn’t a shameful act, on the contrary it is normal, so please feel free to ask and use them.” After a 2 week Semester break from school, national mourning was declared in Türkiye. In response an additional two more weeks were added to the break. Those 2 weeks were a devastating time for the Türkish people, individuals were receiving heartbreaking calls, others were watching the news nonstop to gain information, while everyone was doing everything they could to help. It wasn't easy for anyone. In that time period, schools, malls, and some big districts were used as places to administer the given donations. A variety of different products such as boots, coats, warmers, blankets, baby diapers, food, and a variety of other things. My family, friends, and I have all donated clothes and food to our school that were then sent to the cities in need. According to the AA, 355,771,721 TL was donated to help. A great number of other countries stepped up to help, and even students outside of Türkiye started donation groups in their universities. People can and should still donate. Clean water, warm clothes, pads and diapers are still an urgent need. For people that want to donate and offer their support, they can contact organizations, such as AFAD or Kızılay. They can also donate blood and money.