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Overview

The Unicef Turkey-earthquake Situation Report #17, elaborates on the implementation of activities in the Recovery Plan for Turkish Children (RPTC), with a feature focus on Unicef Turkey Earthquake Programme’s projects in the education sector.

The provision of education is an inalienable right at all times and in all situations. Following a crisis, the provision of a safe learning environment following a disaster such as an earthquake, is an integral component to fostering the self-esteem, knowledge and life-skills of children. In addition, the restoration of the education system can have a positive and stabilizing impact on the normalization of family-life, facilitating the restitution of a sound social environment.

As of 29 March, 8.2% of the of the population residing in the five affected provinces live in tent camps and prefabricated cities. Approximately 79,000 people currently inhabit tents and 136,000 live in prefabricated housing units, showing a slight decrease in the homeless population (by 1,500 families) in the last two weeks. It is estimated that 75,000 children and youth between the ages of 0-18 years are residents of these same prefabricated houses and tents.

In accordance with the RPTC, Unicef’s earthquake interventions have been designed and implemented to ensure that all children in the earthquake area are returned as quickly as possible to a normal school environment. In concert with interventions in the Psychosocial, Health and Nutrition, and Water and Environmental Sanitation sectors, Unicef’s commitment to fostering the growth and normalization of children exposed to traumatic events through the educational system has been concretised through:

• distribution of school materials and educational kits to 700 of the hardest hit schools (46% of all schools in the affected area);
• distribution of high energy/ protein biscuit supplements to over 115,000 children;
• the provision of supplies and materials to support teachers; and
• implementation of psychological interventions in schools.

Education

In a Crisis Situation

 
The priority concerns of relief activities are focused on the rights to survival and protection. Once in motion, the re-establishment of educational activities must be incorporated in emergency programming and response. As a social institution, the education system has a key role in redressing the social disequilibrium that can result following a crisis, such as the two earthquakes that devastated the Northwestern region of Turkey in August and November 1999.

Educational interventions in a crisis situation demand that the fundamental components of the normative school system are intact in order to create a familiar and safe environment for children. These elements often include securing appropriate infrastructure and furnishings, the attainment of educational materials to facilitate learning (as in the case of Unicef Educational, Recreational and Pre-School kits), and galvanising the human resources needed to provide instruction within the classroom.
 
 

The commitment, guidance and support of teachers in the face of adverse circumstances has paved the road to recovery for children and their families. Despite the loss of family members, homes and possessions, many teachers opted to remain in the earthquake area. Their presence has been instrumental in helping children cope with present circumstances as well as perceiving the future with renewed confidence.
 
 
 

Perspectives

School in a Balloon Photo credits and story by Zeynep Erdim

“As a teacher, you have to make sure that the students feel safe. Otherwise, you loose control of a classroom,” says Keramettin Uzundurukan, Headmaster of a Asagi Yuvacik “balloon” school in Golcuk. “The children know that their families cannot prevent an earthquake, but somehow, they hope that we can do it.”

The school’s original function was as an indoor tennis court. Pressured hot air is pumped through valves and fills the structure, giving the appearance of a balloon. Though the school was nice and warm during the winter months, with the approaching summer, it is becoming unbearably hot. “But the real problem is the noise,” says the Headmaster. Classroom separators are less then two meters high, yet the “roof” of the school reaches 4 meters. Children’ voices echo throughout the balloon.

Headmaster Keramettin Uzundurukan with students

Due to these conditions, teachers have become more tolerant with their students. “How can I get angry with a small child who may not have a sink at home to wash her face in the morning and walks many kilometers to come to school? ” says a teacher.

Tents, balloons, and prefabricated units have been converted into classes and small shed-like houses have become home to teachers working in the earthquake area. The shortage of educational materials has proved difficult for both students and teachers. Notebooks aren’t discarded until they are completely filled and pencils are sharpened less frequently. UNICEF has provided educational materials to 707 schools in the five earthquake affected provinces and is one of the largest providers of educational materials in the disaster area.

Students of the balloon school receive UNICEF’s educational and recreational kits as well as high energy/protein biscuits. “We need educational support because many parents of students are unemployed…UNICEF materials provide the means for children to continue their education,” says a teacher.

Unicef response

FRAMEWORK OF ACTIVITIES

 
Credit: Zeynep Erdim
The Recovery Plan for Turkish Children (RPTC), developed in consultation with the Government of Turkey in August 1999 and conceived for a period of six months, is being implemented in all areas affected by the 17 August and 12 November Earthquakes. The international community, through 17 UNICEF National Committees and 10 Governments, has responded generously to the UNICEF Recovery Plan. This commitment has been met by contributions of $US 14.7 million.

Activities are implemented through an integrated multi-sectoral approach which aims to provide a sound environment for children and their mothers in tent camps and prefabricated cities, using the concept of “Child Friendly Environment” as a model. This concept is based on the provision of an integrated set of services to meet the basic needs of children and their mothers in various areas, namely the health, nutrition, education, water, sanitation, and psycho-social sectors.
 

Education Projects

As a result of the August and November 199 earthquakes, approximately 75,000 children ages 0-18 are still homeless and as a consequence, live in tent camps and prefabricated cities. Many structures, including schools, suffered extensive damage, and currently, classes throughout the region are being held in tents and prefabricated units.

In response, Unicef has elaborated and implemented the following interventions to ensure that all children in the earthquake area are returned as quickly as possible to a normal school environment.:

• Provision of educational materials for schoolchildren

• Provision of flooring pallets, heaters and whiteboards for damaged and newly reconstructed schools

• Distribution of high energy/protein biscuits in schools

• Support to teachers

• Identification and support of facilities for children with special needs

The school situation in the earthquake area is still difficult, as initial target dates to construct classrooms for schoolchildren have still not been fully met. To make up for the deficiency in classrooms, schools are operating on a shift-system, in which one set of students attend classes for a five-hour period in the morning, and another set of students attend during the same period in the afternoon. Schools in Adapazari city centre and Duzce provide classes on Saturdays.

Weather conditions can seriously compromise the provision of education to schoolchildren. During the winter months, heavy snow caused schools throughout the earthquake area to close early for the winter break, and school tents collapsed in Bolu and Duzce. The approaching warmer months pose new problems for schooling in the area. Winterized tents become very hot. Some schoolmasters have indicated that they are concerned that they will be unable to complete the school year providing instruction in tents.

There has been difficulty establishing schools for children with mental and physical handicaps following the two earthquakes. These schools are particularly important, as students with special needs are unable to attend schools in the tent or prefabricated structures. Special needs students require accompaniment to and from school, as they can easily become disoriented and lose their way. Due to the housing situation and on-going relocation of families from tent camps to prefabricated cities, school buses are not available to transport children, especially those who live far away. Local MoNE’s have not yet determined how they will address this problem.
 
 

Supply of School Materials Project
 

As a result of the earthquakes, many schools lost materials and supplies. In addition, many students lost their houses and with it all their possessions. This project aims to identify those schools that have been most affected by the earthquake, and supply materials to these classes.

A total of 707 schools have received school materials throughout the five earthquake affected Provinces. Most of the supplies were allocated to Duzce centre, Kaynasli district in Duzce, and Sakarya, as more than 50% of schools in these regions were severely damaged by the earthquakes.
 
 

Educational and recreational kits, whiteboards, flooring pallets, and pre-school kits have been distributed to all tent schools in Bolu and Duzce, and to affected schools in the first earthquake area. The table below shows the distribution to date of these supplies according to Province as of 25 March:
 

Unicef provides Kits to all primary schools in Yalova centre

 

The Ministry of National Education plans to build one hundred and six prefabricated schools in the earthquake area. These schools will provide more than 1,000 classes. The end of the scholastic year - 22 June - is soon approaching and it remains uncertain whether many of the new prefabricated schools will open before the end of the school year. In addition, many of these new schools will not register first-year students to ensure that that they do not miss out on a full first full year of school.

School Nutrition Programme

In response to a concern for the health and well-being of children in the earthquake area, UNICEF began a short-term programme to distribute high energy/protein biscuits in the health centres of the tent cities and in schools within the earthquake area. The Ministry of National Education identified the most vulnerable schools by surveying the school transportation system, and assessing where the children from tent cities attend school. Distribution of high energy/protein biscuits is undertaken every two weeks, as many schools do not have sufficient spaces to retain more than this in stock. 

The total number of beneficiaries can be found in the table below, together with the cumulative quantity of biscuits distributed.

Support Programmes

The need for teachers is ubiquitous throughout the earthquake area. Subject specialists (for geography, English and science) are not readily available, and those who are sent to the area temporarily do not wish to remain there for an extended period of time, due to existing conditions and the relocation from home and families. Teachers, as well as medical staff, are being given priority for prefabricated housing units, however the shortage of prefabricated housing units remains acute. Unicef has endeavoured to support teachers by providing needed supplies and materials during the difficult transition period following the earthquake. In Duzce, Unicef provided the following:

Unicef has provided support to mental and physical handicapped students through the provision of Special Needs Kits. The contents of a Special Needs Kits needs kits is provided in the box below.
 

 

Psychosocial Intervention
 

Numerous studies and assessments have shown that the psychological impact of disasters on the affected population can be profound. Experiences from comparable earthquakes in other regions of the world have indicated that psychological disorders caused by the extensive exposure to traumatic events, coupled with grievance due to losses will result in long-term psychological, educational and health disturbances in a significant portion of the affected population. Such trauma may hinder the resumption of normal daily life activities.

The school system can serve as the focus for accelerating the recovery of children who have experienced trauma. It is in this vein that psychological interventions within a school setting were initiated as a means of reaching a large number of children in the earthquake area. Both limited psychological interventions, such as debriefing and more intensive methods as psycho-education and Classroom Based Interventions (CBI), if implemented in an appropriate manner, can have a lasting positive impact, enhancing the return to normalcy of children and adults.

Classroom Based Intervention

Over a period of six weeks, the CBI method provides a three hour a week, expressive, cognitive and role playing psychological support course to primary school children. CBI activities will begin during the month of April. The following schools have been identified for CBI implementation in the first six-week phase :

 
 

Bolu	Duzce	Sakarya	Yalova	Kocaeli
Milli Egemenlik P.S. Koc P.S.	Super Lit P.S. Kaynasli P.S. Dariyeri P.S. Teachers’ Guest House	Akyazi Secondary School Fatih P.S.	Gazi Abdurrahman P.S. Piyale Pasa P.S. Saban Temuge P.S. Osmangazi P.S. Mehmet Akif Ersoy P.S.	Denizevler P.S. Cumhuriyet P.S.

 

In Sakarya, an expert groups has begun to conduct evaluation surveys to estimate the level of trauma in schoolchildren. In Sakarya, the Director of the Guidance and Resource Centre informed that through the survey, they determined thus far that there are approximately 60 schools in need of CBI activities. The Guidance and Resource Centre Director in Yalova informed that they would initiate a series of meetings with school principals, homeroom teachers and parents, and determine which schools would be targeted for the intervention.

Unicef will provide 60 tents for schools that require additional space for CBI activities, including furnishing such as carpets, lighting and heating. The locations of the tents have been identified and setting up the tents will take place during the first week of April. The Guidance and Resource Centre building in Bolu was moderately damaged by the earthquake, therefore, local MoNE in Bolu provided space at a newly constructed high school building. Two hundred basic kits and have been ordered in support of CBI interventions. These kits, for a class of 30 students, includes the following:
 

Cassette player 1

HQ Cassette 1

Parachute 1

Drums 2

Frisbees 30

Yellow soft ball 4

Beach ball 8

Child scissors 30

Adult scissors 1

Stapler 1

Hole punch 1

Other items, including fabric dyes, crayolas, glue, and fabric have also been ordered for CBI interventions.

Psycho-education Programme

The psycho-education method targets not only school children but also teachers, and parents, in cognitive and educational psychological support activities. Though less intense than the CBI, this method implemented by teachers has the advantage of being able to reach all children in primary schools throughout the earthquake area. The method will run parallel to CBI and is to commence also at the beginning of April, involving up to 8,000 teachers and 240,000 children.

Materials to be used for the psycho-education component will be finalised during the first week of April.
 

Seminar in Group Counselling

On April 16-19, a seminar on group counselling will be provided by two clinical psychologists from Norway. In total, it is expected that 52 counsellors and 8 expert group leaders will be trained during the seminar.
 

Training for Social Workers

The CBI method has been adapted for use in both creches and youth centres, so as to target the pre-school age children, youths and children that do not attend school. A total of 105 SHCEK (Department of Social Welfare) social workers were trained at the end of February and provided with the CBI kits to commence activities in the existing tent camp structures and the pre-fab facilities under construction
 
 
 

Health and Nutrition

Distribution of Emergency Health Kits in Izmit

Credit: John Conteh

Monitoring of Emergency Health Kit Distribution

Some of the 526 UNICEF Emergency Health Kits (EHKs) distributed to the 3 provinces of the first Earthquake area have been re-deployed to PHCCs in the five earthquake provinces. In Sakarya, the distribution of Emergency Health Kits will resume during the next reporting period.

Nutritional Surveillance

The establishment of Sentinel Post sites in one Prefabricated Primary Health Care Centre in each of the five provinces has been discussed among Unicef Programme staff. The purpose of these sites would be to obtain information on reported health-related data on a bi-monthly basis.

A nutritionist was recently hired to work with the Health and Nutrition team to assist with nutritional monitoring in the earthquake area. Amongst other activities, the nutritionist will assist in promoting a balanced diet in households, train local health personnel in the management of nutritionally deficient cases and survey collection, and monitor the distribution of high protein biscuits with a view to improve micro-nutrient deficiency and protein/energy malnutrition.

Awareness Raising

A multi-sectoral awareness-raising meeting between Water and Sanitation and the Health and Nutrition team took place to formulate and develop a child-friendly basic hygiene and environmental sanitation poster. In addition, a short message on EPI was prepared to be incorporated in the upcoming adult Wall Journal issue, to be published and disseminated by the end of March by SHCEK.

WES Projects

Water and Environmental Sanitation

 
Following the two earthquakes, extensive damage was suffered not only by buildings, roads and the electricity grid, but also by the water pipe and sewage network throughout the five affected provinces area. One of the many challenges faced by relief workers was to provide rapid water and sanitation facilities to contain the spread of water-borne and poor hygiene related diseases, and to provide the surviving population with their basic hygiene needs.
 

Water Distribution in Duzce and Adapazari

Unicef Earthquake Programme’s Water and Environmental Sanitation Programme in Duzce and Adapazari is continuously working to provide safe drinking water to the population left homeless due to the two earthquakes. The provision of safe drinking water will continue in Duzce and Adapazari until mid and end of April 2000, with a gradual phasing out in the number of water trucks. During a recent monitoring survey, it was observed that 50% of all water distributed is delivered by Unicef tankers.

As the earthquake in Duzce damaged mostly the smaller pipe lines, with 90% of the main pipe lines currently functioning, UNICEF’s Water and Sanitation team proposed a “community water collection points project” which has been agreed upon by implementing partners. Fifty of the total 62 planned points have been identified within the city and surrounding areas in temp camps and smaller tent gatherings.
 

Installation of Clusters

The delivery of all clusters and septic tanks to the earthquake area has been finalised. The clusters serve a population of 600, and can be broken down into individual components according to needs. Following an official request from Adapazari Municipality to install septic tanks in school areas, 39 septic tanks have been re-deployed to Adapazari. With the provision of these septic tanks, schools will have operational sanitation facilities for schoolchildren during the repair of the sewage network. The number of clusters and separate units installed is as follows:

 
Creche and Youth Activities

 
UNICEF has been at the forefront in advocating that all prefabricated cities must have a supportive physical, social infrastructure and services to meet the basic needs, of children. All efforts are being made to ensure that prefabricated cities provide the services that are not provided by the existing infrastructure such as creches, youth activities and after school recreational activities.
 

Allocation of Space for Creches and Youth Centres

Following the second earthquake, the demand for housing units became priority over the allocation of space for creche and youth activities leading often to the exclusion of the latter. The Deputy Governor of Bolu has identified six potential new locations in prefabricated cities where creches and youth centres can be built. The German Red Cross has agreed to build some of the centres. Duzce is particularly challenged by the need to allocate units for creche activities due to a shortage of housing. The Government is committed to finding a solution.

Fifty-three creches and youth centres have been secured to receive Unicef insulation, furnishings and staff training. The distribution of furniture, books and other accessories has begun in 5 youth centres, including, Ferizli and Tekeler in Adapazari; and Uzunciftlik, Bahcecik and Kosekoy in Izmit.

 
Training of Child Educators

A two-day workshop was provided to forty students and child educators on the Child Friendly Environment concept, and its implementation. The workshop organised by Unicef and SHCEK and provided by the French NGO, Enfants du Monde, gave practical guidance to child educators, social work students and volunteers on appropriate recreational activities for traumatised children.

Due to the increase in workload due to the recent opening of prefabricated cities, and the second earthquake in the Bolu/Duzce area, SHCEK’s social workers, who are presently working in both tent and prefabricated cities in the five affected provinces will require the assistance of these trained students and child educators in the operation of the creches.

CEM

COMMUNICATIONS EVALUATION AND MONITORING

Geographic Information Systems (GIS)

A Geographic Information System is being designed and updated on an on-going basis to facilitate and enhance data analysis, programming, evaluation and monitoring of the earthquake programme activities. Extensive baseline data has been gathered and entered into the system’s database, including comparative countrywide indicators and specific EQ area pre and post disaster figures. Hard copy ground maps of city centres and provinces have been digitised into vectoral geographic data layers and are being used as base layers for the superimposition of programme activity data. Unicef’s GIS data has been shared with donors, UN agencies, and sectoral ministries at the local and national level.

Following the training of in-house staff on GIS use and design, Unicef will extend training to agency colleagues in the UN family in Turkey, as the GIS has wide applications for various programmes, with a view to develop the capacity of United Nations agencies. The 15 hour training is envisaged to take place between 17-21 April.

 
Level of Funding

 
As of 29 March, contributions pledged to UNICEF Recovery Plan for Turkish Children total US$ 14,731,072 million. Contributions received amount to 14,320,046. US$ 7,586,791 has been pledged from UNICEF National Committees, and US$ 7,144,281 from Governments. Turkish National Committee contributed US$ 93,000 to UNICEF’s Earthquake Emergency Programme. The following table provides a breakdown of the funds pledged: