Turkey

Humanitarian context

In early 2023, Turkey was hit by a 7.8-magnitude earthquake that affected 11 of the country's poorest provinces. Before that, the situation was already marked by poverty, as the country has been hosting more than 4 million Syrian refugees since 2015 (about half of whom are estimated to be minors) and was going through a deep economic crisis. In the aftermath of the pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine war and the earthquake, almost a third of the Turkish population is at risk of poverty or social exclusion, while the price of the basic food basket exceeds the minimum wage, increasing the likelihood of household hunger.

The earthquake killed more than 50,000 people, injured nearly 110,000 and destroyed more than 260,000 buildings, impacting the lives of more than 9 million people across the country, including 4 million children.

Our activity

Action Against Hunger has focused its efforts on mitigating the effects of the earthquakes, mainly in the Hatay, Kahramanmaras and Adiyaman regions. There it has worked with local partners to adopt an initial approach through rapid needs assessments in order to respond to the most severely affected population in the most effective way.

During 2023, Action Against Hunger addressed the most pressing humanitarian needs of the post-emergency population, assisting more than 117,000 people through water, sanitation and hygiene programmes; distributing nearly 248,000 hot meals; establishing Mother and Baby Friendly Spaces (MBFS) for the nutritional care of newborns and their mothers; and providing psychosocial support to more than 11,000 beneficiaries.