All posts by : İNGEV

Since the first day of the earthquake on February 6, we have been working as Disaster Platform members for 100 days for our citizens affected by the disaster.

As Disaster Platform, a total of 2,573,905 humanitarian aid support has been provided through the logistics center we established in Hatay Expo.

In addition to basic humanitarian aid, we have been working in the fields of psychosocial support, education, health, women and children.

As members of the Disaster Platform, we would like to thank our stakeholders, donors and volunteers for their contributions.

After the earthquake disaster that shook our country deeply, it is critical to determine the needs of SMEs in the disaster area and to evaluate them quickly.

Can Çakır, Director of INGEV TAM (Center for Social Research), was a live guest on EkoTürk TV’s Son Seans program presented by Ali Çağatay.

Click here to watch the live broadcast where Can Çakır talks about the results of the “Disaster Region Businesses Rapid Assessment” research results of INGEV’s interviews with SMEs in the region:

https://bit.ly/43aKu9t

Highlights from the research: 

• 49% of businesses cannot continue to make sales after the earthquake.
• 25.5% of business owners have “plans to migrate to another city outside the earthquake zone”.
• 44% of SMEs have ceased operations and 45% have severely damaged business vehicles.
• The city with the highest percentage of business owners who plan to leave their city permanently is Hatay with 40%.
• According to the estimates based on the survey, Istanbul, Ankara, Bursa and Mersin will be the most preferred cities for business owners migrating out of the earthquake zone.

The interim results of our study on the situation of SMEs in the earthquake region were shared at a meeting. A brief summary and takeaways:

The interim results of the “rapid assessment” study conducted by the İNGEV Social Research Group (İNGEV TAM) on entrepreneurs in the earthquake zone, covering 427 business owners, of which 249 were completed, were shared with the relevant organizations. More than 50 organizations attended this meeting.

This first phase covered regions other than Adıyaman and Kahramanmaraş. The study was carried out with INGEV’s own resources and volunteer support.

The aim is to contribute to the planning of future “improvement” efforts.

44 percent of SMEs have ceased operations, 45 percent have serious damage to their business vehicles. Only 11 percent have earthquake insurance.

External financing and referrals are essential for recovery efforts.

Twenty percent of business owners in the region have left their province. Of those who have left, Istanbul is the first province (27 percent). Mersin and Gaziantep are next, despite being in the earthquake zone. Adana and Gaziantep are becoming “hubs” used by many organizations for relief efforts. Meanwhile, 18 percent of SMEs do not plan to return to their jobs.

The study identifies the urgent needs of each SME individually in order to create data for “Business Recovery Mapping” as an open source. Collectively, the service sector prioritizes the creation of a minimum working environment (even common areas), while the manufacturing industry prioritizes the repair of production tools. For everyone, cash assistance to provide these is decisive.

Stock replenishment, raw material supply and re-access to supplier markets come second. Meanwhile, the supply of skilled/unskilled labor is also a serious issue in some regions.

The scope of work continues to increase. Rebuilding livelihoods in the region will require intensive, deep efforts and strong financial support. All relevant organizations, local and international NGOs will need to focus on rebuilding lives in a sustainable way after the immediate response to food and shelter. Following the distribution of hygiene products for women and other emergency relief assistance, which we started yesterday in Gaziantep and will continue in Islahiye and Nurdağı next week, we will try to put in place support for livelihoods development, which is our main area of expertise.

President Vural Çakır published an information note about our foundation’s post-disaster efforts:

Vural Çakır: “After the disaster, we reorganized our main area of expertise by including emergency aid and early recovery in cooperation with our partner organizations.

While our social research team shares post-disaster figures and preliminary results of the SME rapid assessment with relevant organizations, our field and program management groups focus on emergency relief efforts.

After the earthquake, we identified population movements and needs on a regional basis, including the immigrant population, and shared them with the relevant institutions.

Our social research team recently shared the evaluation of 300 enterprises, the first stage of the needs analysis, which determines the damage status of MSMEs.

Thus, we would like to design a map and organize open-source support efforts for small businesses. Our Şanlıurfa team evaluates the situation of the beneficiaries we previously supported regarding business and employment.

We continue our emergency aid efforts in three areas. In the first days after the earthquake, we distributed blankets and sponge mattresses in Şanlıurfa and circulated blankets, hygiene materials, and tents in Hatay. Together with the Defne district, the number of tents we have delivered in Hatay reached 150. Our Hatay representative and colleagues from Istanbul and Şanlıurfa participate in these tent deliveries. We supply tents from companies in Ankara.

In the coming days, we will be able to work on hygiene materials, especially for women in Gaziantep. Although there is no main concentration in terms of emergency aid at this stage, earthquake survivors settled in different provinces constitute another important need group. Small local campaigns can support this segment.

This is how we try to support Validebağ Teachers’ House, which hosts earthquake-affected teachers. We also believe that with the completion of rescue and shelter works, early recovery and livelihood efforts will gain weight.

For this, we aim to establish community solidarity centers, especially in tent and container cities, in cooperation with various organizations. We continue to work on how we can increase our capacity and how we can contribute more.”

Our social research team (INGEV TAM) has compiled the post-disaster figures to provide an overview for the latest situation and support the emergency response strategies.

Following the February 6 Kahramanmaraş earthquakes, the houses of 14% of the population have been severely damaged or demolished. Children aged 0-14 make 28%, and young people aged 15-24 comprise 15% of the population seriously affected by the earthquakes. 94% of the affected population have been relocated to shelter in tents, containers or public facilities.