What February 6 Taught Us About Volunteering

After the earthquakes that struck eleven provinces on February 6, 2023, people from across Türkiye rushed to the disaster area. Shopkeepers loaded trucks with water and blankets, engineers closed their workplaces and set off, families opened their homes to survivors… The solidarity we witnessed remains in our memory as one of this society’s most valuable qualities.

Those days showed us something else too. Roads into the region became gridlocked. Aid piled up in places where it was not needed while essentials were missing elsewhere. Well-intentioned crowds waiting by the rubble without knowing what to do sometimes made professional teams’ work harder. After that catastrophe, in which we lost more than 53,000 people, one question was asked repeatedly: how could we have put so much goodwill to more effective use?

Much of the answer lies in preparation. When disaster volunteering is mentioned, most of us think of search and rescue. Yet a disaster area needs dozens of different roles: logistics, interpreting, psychosocial support, food distribution, animal evacuation, data entry, assisting older and disabled people, and activities for children. An accountant organizing warehouse records or a teacher caring for children in a tent settlement can contribute much more than someone simply waiting beside the rubble.

For this to work, a volunteer needs to be registered, trained, and aware of the coordination structure they belong to before the disaster. That is why AFAD’s volunteer system and the training programs of organizations such as the Turkish Red Crescent matter. Participation should continue after the emotional intensity following an earthquake has passed.

Preparing at neighborhood level

Professional teams cannot reach everywhere simultaneously in a major disaster. Neighbors carry much of the burden in the first hours. Residents know best whether there is a bedridden patient in their building, whether an older woman on the third floor lives alone, and which exit is safer. Even a simple list prepared by neighborhood administrations and apartment managers could make the initial response much faster. It is still not too late to expand such neighborhood efforts in a city like Diyarbakır, which experienced the earthquake closely.

One of the problems we saw most often afterward was material sent without confirming the need. Tons of used clothing accumulated in some warehouses while critical supplies such as infant formula or medication failed to arrive in time. This is why donors should follow needs lists announced by official institutions and trusted organizations, and avoid sharing every social media appeal without verifying it.

If we start discussing who will do what on the day of a disaster, we will already be too late. Anyone reading this can look into AFAD or Turkish Red Crescent volunteer programs within the next month and see whether there is a role suited to their profession. There will again be many people wanting to help at the next disaster. What matters is knowing beforehand what they will do, where, and with whom.