Rescuers scramble to find survivors in the village of Besnia in Syria, following the catastrophic earthquakes that struck both Türkiye and Syria on 6 February, killing thousands and injuring many more. “UNFPA is committed to support the people of Türkiye and Syria affected by the earthquakes, including the pregnant women who are expected to give birth in the coming weeks under these difficult conditions,” said Dr. Natalia Kanem, Executive Director of UNFPA. “Their ability to access quality care before, during and after delivery must not be an afterthought.” 

© AFP via Getty Images

A child receives urgent care in the town of Sarmada in Syria in the wake of the devastating earthquakes. The initial quake struck in the early hours of the morning on 6 February while people slept, with the second hitting later in the day amid a series of aftershocks, compounding the devastation. The governments of both Türkiye and Syria have declared national emergencies and called for international support.

© OCHA/Ali Haj Suleiman

Women embrace amid a sea of debris in Hatay, Türkiye. Thousands of buildings, including maternity facilities and safe spaces for women and girls, have been severely damaged or destroyed. UNFPA’s urgent priority is to restore services that are crucial to the health and well-being of women and girls.

© Getty Images/Burak Kara

Rescuers comb through piles of rubble in Lattakia, Syria, hoping to find survivors in a race against time amid the overwhelming devastation. 

© UNFPA Syria/Mosaic

Rescuers work into the night, continuing to find people trapped under the rubble alive, including this young girl rescued in Hatay, Türkiye.

© SGDD-ASAM Turan Berker Akdevelioğlu

A newborn baby—who was found still tied by her umbilical cord to her mother—was pulled from the rubble of a home in northern Syria. Now receiving medical care at a clinic in Afrin, Syria, the infant is the sole survivor of her immediate family. Among the millions of people in Türkiye and Syria who have been affected by the quakes are tens of thousands of pregnant women who need access to maternal health services.

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Women working with the UNFPA-supported Women and Girls Safe Space visit the Şanlıurfa Training and Research Hospital in Türkiye, providing postnatal counseling and delivering maternal kits—containing clothes and supplies for both mother and baby—to pregnant women and new mothers.

© Harran University, WGSS

Staff members of the UNFPA-supported Women and Girls Safe Space deliver much-needed maternal kits to women at the Şanlıurfa Training and Research Hospital in Türkiye. The kits include baby clothes, hand soap, baby blankets, underwear, postpartum pads, baby shampoo, baby rash cream, diapers, and baby-safe wipes, among other items. 

© Harran University, WGSS

UNFPA Syria and partners arrived rapidly in affected areas, such as this devastated neighborhood in Aleppo, to assess needs and provide immediate assistance.

© UNFPA Syria

Staff members of UNFPA Syria carry out an assessment of needs in Aleppo and across the country, providing support via mobile clinics and safe spaces and handing out dignity kits and winter kits containing crucial supplies. 

© UNFPA Syria

A fresh snowfall adds to the challenge of rescue efforts in Elbistan, Türkiye. Amid freezing temperatures, survivors have been building fires from pieces of wood in the debris in an attempt to stay warm. Another crisis looms if people cannot soon access shelter, food, and other essentials.  

© Getty Images/Mehmet Kacmaz

A child finds a place to sleep on a pile of bedding supplies provided by humanitarians in the town of Jandairisin in Syria.

© UNOCHA/Mohanad Zayat

Urgently constructed camps in Diyarbakır, Türkiye, provide temporary shelter amid vast needs across both Türkiye and Syria.

© KAMER - WGSS

In Lattakia, Syria, a UNFPA-supported Safe Space sets up shelter for survivors left homeless by the catastrophic quakes.

© UNFPA Syria/Mosaic

A woman waits for news of her loved ones, believed to be trapped under a collapsed building in Hatay, Türkiye. “The lives of so many people have been torn apart,” said Dr. Kanem. “Amidst the devastation and uncertainty that natural disasters bring, UNFPA will continue to do what is needed and what it does best: respond to women’s and girls’ emergency healthcare and protection needs.”

© Getty Images/Burak Kara

“We suddenly woke up to the sound of the earthquake. My children had passed away in their beds, and my grandchildren were trapped under rubble,” says Kıymet.

“I was eight months pregnant. I was so scared. We couldn't stand up, our building was shaking so badly,” says Yonca.

“I woke up to realize that I lost everything in one minute – no home, no clothes, no money, nothing at all,” says Om Mohamed.

The moment of 4.17 a.m. on 6 February 2023 will be etched forever in the minds of millions of people across Türkiye and Syria. It’s when the first of two devastating earthquakes shook the region, with the second coming nine hours later. Thousands of aftershocks arrived in the weeks that followed.

[Pictured above] A woman looks over a scene of destruction in Jinderis, Syria. © UNFPA/Karam Al-Masri

As the scale of the disaster registered around the world, UNFPA launched an emergency response along with its partners.

The goal: to meet the immediate needs of women and girls in the aftermath of the crisis and to ensure the continuation of essential sexual and reproductive health services, including access to safe deliveries and contraception, as well as to protect displaced women and girls from abuse and violence.

Since the onset of this emergency, UNFPA has supported close to 500,000 people in affected areas.

[Pictured above] At a bazaar in Şanlıurfa, Türkiye, where people are sheltering in makeshift structures and vehicles, Gülsüm is among a team of psychologists, social workers and nurses who provide support. © UNFPA Türkiye/Eren Korkmaz

Three months on, the needs of women and girls remain stark.

Some 2.4 million earthquake survivors continue to live in camp settings in Türkiye, and some 1.9 million people in northwest Syria continue to live in camps or self-settled sites in dire conditions.

For millions of people, recovery is not happening quickly enough.

At this crucial stage, investment needs to be not only sustained, but ramped up. A protracted recovery will increase risks for women and girls as well as require more funds.

[Pictured above] A temporary camp on the outskirts of Diyarbakır, Türkiye. © UNFPA Türkiye/Eren Korkmaz

Lale, 22, is living with her family in a camp in Hatay, Türkiye. While she continues to wait for a tent of her own, she sleeps in a makeshift structure with her parents.

“We ran out barefoot in the rain; the babies had no jacket, no blanket,” says Lale, whose twins are six months old. “I have nothing left.”

Lale has received dignity and maternity kits with essential supplies but is still frequently running out of diapers, as well as food.

“I go to bed half full, half hungry, with my babies. We've been out in the rain too long.”

[Pictured above] Lale and her twin babies at an overcrowded camp in Hatay. © UNFPA Türkiye/Eren Korkmaz

For women and girls staying in camps, simply using the washroom can be a source of distress.

Many settlements lack adequate toilets and hygiene facilities. Adding to the problem, it can be difficult to make a bathroom trip after dark, when there is limited or no electricity.

Initially displaced from their hometown due to conflict, Salwa, 14, and Kholoud, 13, have lived for three years at the AlSekka camp in Idlib, Syria – an area affected by the earthquakes.

The two friends received dignity kits – which include supplies such as hygiene products and torches – provided by UNFPA partner Ihsan Relief and Development. “These things help us in maintaining personal hygiene,” says Salwa.

[Pictured above] Friends Kholoud (left) and Salwa look through the contents of a dignity kit. © UNFPA/Karam Al-Masri

In north-west Syria, the earthquakes are a crisis on top of a crisis.

After 12 years of conflict and human rights violations, people are living under untold strain. For many people uprooted by the earthquakes, this is yet another displacement.

“During the aftershocks, people were asking, ‘Is it a missile or another earthquake?’ If it was a mortar attack, people needed to go to the ground floor or basement; if it’s an earthquake, they needed to get out. People didn’t know what to do,” says Kinda Katranji, Communications Analyst in Syria who heard directly from women and girls affected.

[Pictured above] In the Syrian city of Maarat al-Numan, where many houses were damaged by war before the earthquakes compounded the destruction, mobile health teams are providing support. © UNFPA Syria/Massoud Hasan

Sex, periods and births do not stop during a crisis.

UNFPA has distributed tens of thousands of dignity kits and maternity kits since the onset of the crisis to women and girls in cities as well as in harder-to-reach rural areas.

[Pictured above] Dignity kits are distributed in the Sheikh Bahr camp in the countryside near the town of Armanaz in Syria. © UNFPA/Karam Al-Masri

Reports of gender-based violence, exploitation, abuse, child marriage and forced marriage have all increased following the earthquakes, at a time when services are overstretched.

In Syria, many safe spaces were damaged, like this one in Suran. So the teams went mobile, visiting women and girls at home and in temporary camps, to assess and support both psychological and practical needs.

UNFPA supports 52 safe spaces for women and girls across Syria, along with a helpline, as well as 23 safe spaces in Türkiye.

[Pictured above] A UNFPA safe space is no longer able to operate from its premises in Suran, Syria. It is among 12 safe spaces damaged in north-west Syria. © UNFPA/Karam Al-Masri

Hayfem and her husband and five children are Syrian refugees living in Şanlıurfa, Türkiye. They are sheltering in their vehicle, which they have parked at an outdoor bazaar for safety, along with other families.

A team dedicated to supporting migrant women and young people has mobilized to meet people’s needs following the earthquakes. The team includes psychologists, nurses and social workers.

[Pictured above] Hayfem and family have moved into their vehicle for safety. © UNFPA Türkiye/Eren Korkmaz

Mobile teams have also brought maternity services, including postnatal check-ups, to the camps.

Cahide gave birth shortly before the earthquakes struck. After being displaced, she arrived at a temporary camp in Şanlıurfa, where she was provided with a tent and received a medical check-up and maternity kit.

Across Türkiye and Syria, 60 mobile teams and 60 static clinics provide reproductive health and protection services, including emergency obstetric care, to some of the hardest-to-reach women and girls.

[Pictured above] In Şanlıurfa, Türkiye, UNFPA’s mobile team visits Cahide, who gave birth just before the earthquakes. © UNFPA Türkiye/Gözde Kumru

Baby Hala was born at Idlib Maternity Hospital in Syria. Her mother, Fatima, went into labour early.

“There are premature births due to anxiety, terror and psychological exhaustion that pregnant women experienced because of the earthquake,” says midwife Suad Muhiy-Aldeen. “There are cases of children with a very low weight.”

Hala was monitored in an incubator for the first few days of her life and thankfully now is healthy.

UNFPA-supported facilities have supported more than 1,350 safe deliveries and 400 C-sections in north-west Syria since the earthquakes.

[Pictured above] Fatima and her newborn daughter, Hala, at Idlib Maternity Hospital, run by the Syrian American Medical Society and fully funded by UNFPA. © UNFPA/Karam Al-Masri

Six days after the earthquakes, in the countryside around Aleppo, Syria, Khawla gave birth to quadruplets, who were all delivered safely at Al Fardous Hospital in Daret Azza.

Dr. Bushra Al-Khattab, who was trained by UNFPA, performed the Cesarean section.

As part of an inter-agency response, equipment and supplies have been delivered to health facilities, including equipment for C-sections.

[Pictured above] Khawla’s quadruplets are delivered by Cesarean section at Al Fardous Hospital, run by Syria Relief & Development with support from UNFPA.  © Ahmad Aljarban, SRD/UNFPA

“My joy is indescribable,” says Khawla. “I received services in this wonderful hospital for free. I thank the organization, the hospital and the medical staff for the services they provided me with and the warm welcome.”

The 25-year-old mother and her two older children, who are two and three years old, had been displaced by the earthquakes before she gave birth to her quadruplets. Khawla will be returning to tented accommodation – now with six children – and with uncertainty about what the future holds.

[Pictured above] Khawla with her four newborn babies. © Ahmad Aljarban, SRD/UNFPA

The immediate rescue efforts may be over, but there is still so much more that can and must be done.

With more clinics, mobile health teams, safe spaces and supplies, UNFPA can reach every woman and girl in need, but funding appeals for Türkiye and Syria remain woefully under target.

With additional funding, UNFPA will do whatever it takes to make sure that women affected by the earthquakes can give birth safely, manage their own reproductive choices, and live free from violence.

[Pictured above] UNFPA provides support at a temporary camp in Şanlıurfa, Türkiye. © UNFPA Türkiye/Eren Korkmaz