HEATER DISTRIBUTION TO THE VICTIMS OF AFYON EARTHQUAKE

Background Information: 43 people died and 318 had been injured, following the 6.0 Richter scale earthquake that had occurred, with the epicenter being Sultandagi province of Afyon at 9:11 AM on February 3, 2002 . Sultandagi, Cay and Cobanlar provinces were heavily impacted by the earthquake and 1100 families were left homeless under the severe winter conditions. The related governmental bodies and non governmental organizations took immediate action in assisting the earthquake victims with the experience gained from the Kocaeli and Duzce earthquakes in 1999. Within a short period, tent camps and prefabricated shelters were organized, following the establishment of the Crisis Centers in Afyon's city center and provinces, parallel to the activities of the Civil Defense and other search and rescue teams.

Project Summary: IBC had distributed LPG heater sets to the 500 families that were suffering from the cold living in the temporary shelters of Cay and Cobanlar provinces and its villages in coordination with the Mukhtars (head of village) and in accordance with the information provided from the crisis centers.

Project Goal: To contribute to met the heating need of earthquake victims living in temporary shelters under cold weather conditions in order to prevent probable health complications that they might faced with.

Project Beneficiaries: A total of 500 families with 2735 individuals; 90 families/435 individuals from Cobanlar province center, 151 families/873 individuals from Istiklal, Fatih and Ataturk villages of Kocaoz province, 35 families/169 individuals from Cay province center, 224 families/1258 individuals from its villages had benefited from the project.

Implemented Activities:

As the initial activity, Afyon Crises Center were visited and necessary information about affected regions and relief activities in these regions was received from the officials in order to avoid any duplication with other organizations' activities and to reach the victims not benefited from relief activities so far. As a result of the negotiations, it was understood that there were gaps in relief distribution in Cay and Cobanlar regions and although the quantity of tents and blankets were sufficient, the deficiency in heating the temporary shelters had been ongoing.

Immediate field visits and surveys were made to establish coordination with the Crises Centers in Cay and Cobanlar provinces in order to get information about affected villages and their populations and also to get in touch with the Mukhtars, the head of villages, in order to determine distribution locations and prepare detailed beneficiary family lists. On the other hand, procurement and delivery of 500 heater sets were organized following the market research that had been made in due time.

Consequently, the distribution of 500 heaters and LPG sets were made starting as of February 16, 2002 , to the needy inhabitants of the following locations;