With our professional team, we supported the search and rescue efforts in Gaziantep, Kahramanmaraş and Hatay under the coordination of AFAD during the 6 February earthquakes, which are the epicenter of Kahramanmaraş and affected 11 cities.

With our tent city project, which we started with 3000 units in Belen, Samandağ and Dörtyol districts of Hatay and increased to 7000 units with distributions to different regions, we have met and continue to meet the sheltering needs in these regions to a large extent. We deliver our kits consisting of a mattress, moisture barrier mattress cover, duvet cover, pillow, quilt, blanket and 2 lamps inside each tent.

After our ‘Daisies’ in the center of Hatay Samandağ, ‘Lemons’ and ‘Hyacinths’ in Samandağ Karaçay, we set up our ‘Steppe Flowers’ play tent and ‘Oleanders’ training tents in Belen. There are more than 200 institutions and individuals who support our needs such as tents, pallets, mattresses, playgroups, tables, chairs, toys, books, stationery in kind and in cash during the establishment of our tents. Together with more than 10 teachers, psychologists and volunteer friends who have supported us in cooperation with the Ministry of National Education, we have come together with hundreds of earthquake survivors and we continue to do so.

Both play and education are indispensable for our children. As İlk Umut Association, we aim to activate our play and education tents in more regions with your support and to increase the number of children we can reach.

Since the first day of the earthquake, we have been visiting the provinces, districts, neighborhoods, towns and villages in all regions affected by the earthquake, especially in Kahramanmaraş, Hatay and Gaziantep, and we have delivered and continue to deliver the needs of our earthquake victims such as food-hygiene-baby sets, drinking water, clothes, coats and shoes.

From the first days of the earthquake, we distributed an average of 8,000 breads and 1000 pastries every day, with our mobile bakery, which we first put into operation in Hatay, and then within the scope of the suspended bread and pastry project that we started in Kahramanmaraş.

Currently, we distribute an average of 6000 pieces of free bread per day at our free bread distribution points, which we have put into operation at 3 different points in Kahramanmaraş, one of them in Karaziyaret Mahallesi, the others in Oniksubat Mahallesi and Tevekkeli Village.

We did not forget to celebrate the women’s day of our women working and living in the earthquake area.

Together with our 8 hairdresser and barber volunteers in Kahramanmaraş and Hatay, we provided hairdresser services to earthquake victims of women, men and children, and we continue to provide this service at regular intervals.

In order for our citizens affected by the earthquake and all aid organization personnel serving in the region to meet their laundry, shower and toilet needs under hygienic conditions, we first sent 5 mobile hygiene trucks, and then 14 mobile hygiene points to position them in areas where they are needed, and we continue to send them. In addition, within the scope of our tent city project, we continue to install mobile toilets near tent areas.

As First Hope Association, we took our place in the region as soon as we heard about the earthquake disaster in Kahramanmaraş that took place on February 6, 2023 at 04:17. The scene we encountered was just the tip of an iceberg that would confirm how big this disaster was called ‘Calamity of the Century’. At that moment, we understood that the first service we should provide for a disaster of this magnitude was to mediate the delivery of health and medical aid materials to our citizens. After the meetings we held with our Ministers and Afad officials at the Disaster Coordination Center established in Gaziantep Afad Provincial Directorate Campus, thanks to their support and guidance, for our Hatay, which is one of the provinces that was most heavily affected by the disaster, since the first days of the earthquake, it has a 52 bed capacity, 105 personnel, 3 We established our Field Hospital with the support of the international humanitarian aid organization Samaritan’s Purse, which has provided health services to 8604 injured and sick citizens and performed the surgeries of 270 injured disaster survivors, with its operating room, 1 intensive care unit and 1 pharmacy, day and night, without stopping and getting tired.

And as of April 1, 2023, at 7:00 am, we have carried out the transfer to the Ministry of Health, even with all the equipment in it. From now on, our hospital will continue to give hope and health to every child of our Ministry through our precious health workers and personnel, who have been working with superhuman effort since the pandemic epidemic and continue their services in earthquake zones despite all this fatigue.