Even though she knew she was entering an earthquake zone, where a series of quakes had killed thousands of people, Stratford resident Reem Connor was stunned at the devastation she found.
In Antakya, the city the ancient Greeks called Antioch, the destruction was widespread and almost total.
“It’s a city. It’s not a small village,” Connor said. “The whole city is on the ground.”
Connor, a native of Syria, recently returned from Turkey, where she had traveled to help survivors of the earthquake that struck southeast Turkey and northern Syria. The destruction began with a 7.8 magnitude quake on Feb. 6. That quake, and a series of aftershocks have killed more than 23,000 people and injured tens of thousands more.
When news of the earthquake broke, Connor, a financial analyst and treasurer for the Syrian American Council nonprofit, began planning to come to the region herself. She asked non-governmental organization workers in Turkey what to bring, they told her to take money, as many earthquake survivors weren’t able to access their banks, she said.
She brought $20,000, split between her and another Syrian American Council member. Part of those funds came from friends and family she told about the trip.
“I said, ‘This is the plan. I’m going to Turkey,’” Connor said. “‘If you want to help out and see your money helping those on the ground, this is my info.’”
After arriving in Adana, a city of 1.7 million in southern Turkey, Connor traveled to Gaziantep, near the earthquake epicenter. There, she went to a supermarket with her cousin, who runs a small Turkey-based nonprofit called the Olive Branch Organization.
The two stocked up on things like children’s underwear, feminine hygiene producys, toothbrushes and more according to a list of needs from the International Network for Aid Relief and Assistance. The products went to two families who had been displaced by the quake.
The next day she, an American companion, and some INARA volunteers traveled to Antakya, where she met an aid worker friend and Syrian refugee who had lost two nieces and a nephew beneath the rubble.
“This huge family came from Syria because they were under bombardment,” said Connor, who left Syria years before the war. “Lost everything, started a whole new life in Turkey, and now they have to again relocate and start a new life.”
She gave him some of the money she had brought.
“I asked him to please help whoever needs help because, ‘I know you know everybody in the town,’” Connor said. “With the amount of time I had, it’s impossible for me to help every single person. It’s gonna take time. But these are people who are local, they have that connection.”
In Antakya, Connor said she saw many Syrian families in need of help paying for transportation to relocate to a different area and afford the first few months rent.
On the way back to Gaziantep, the group stopped by several makeshift camps to help with relief efforts, handing out blankets and hygiene kit, she said.
Back in Gaziantep, Connor worked with aid workers to prepare food, hygiene kits, hot meals and blankets, bringing them to Islahiye, a town of about 60,000 located about an hour away. In another nearby town, Kahramanmaras, she helped deliver hot meals to survivors.
At the end of the trip, Connor said she experienced a roughly 6.4 magnitude earthquake while checking into a hotel at Adana.
“I’m talking to the receptionist and all of a sudden she left,” Connor said. “I looked around and saw everybody leaving the hotel. At that point I realized the lights were flickering and shaking and then you could hear the noise. I just ran out of the hotel with everybody.”
She eventually checked in, but asked for a room on the lower level.
Connor said she sometimes felt hopeless during the trip, describing her work as a “drop in the ocean.” Although she is well-connected with aid workers, she said helping those in need is something others can also do.
“Don’t underestimate your power as an individual,” Connor said. “You can reach out to people, you can go and help if you need to.”
Source : CT Post