What Do Earthquake Victims Growing Up in Prefabricated Houses Experience?

Turkey important and risky fault lines earthquake country. In 1939, in Erzincan, in 1999 in Gölcük, in 2011 in Van, in 2020 in İzmir, Elazığ and many more places, it was pregnant with devastating results. And yet, the earthquake that occurred on February 6, 2023 was neither the first nor the last.

After this earthquake, which is centered in Kahramanmaraş and affected 10 provinces, the abandoned cities turned into re-established cities, and they gave birth to all the people, animals and memories in them. “temporary” homes started to be allocated. One of these temporary houses is the “prefabricated houses” that became popular again due to the earthquake. Me too, after the 1999 Gölcük earthquake grew up spending about 7 years of his childhood in prefabricated houses. As a person, I will tell you how the earthquake was from the eyes of a child and how it felt.

After the earthquake, many people started to live in prefabricated houses, usually consisting of 1 room and 1 living room.

Of course, the first of the steps to be taken in order to heal the wounds as soon as possible after the earthquake and to switch to “normal” life was of course the houses. earthquake zones prefabricated houses placed in their safe placeshas become the new ‘temporary home’ for many people. The earthquake survivors, who were waiting to return to their old streets and homes, started to live in these houses in large communities.

These houses, which are mostly 1+1, collaborative life brought it with it. While survivors of the earthquake struggled to return to their old lives and routines, on the other hand, the sense of being together started to give confidence to most of the earthquake survivors in order to struggle with the anxiety and fears caused by the earthquake. Somehow the houses were 1+1, somehow everyone was sleeping in the same place, somehow it was a single storey..

For children, prefabs were not only houses, but also nurseries, games, friends, that is, their new life.

Like many people who started to live in prefabricated houses, children also had to meet these places they had never seen in their lives. Children who experienced a spatial change began to face the material and moral fears brought by the earthquake at a very early age. These fears are sometimes what if there is an earthquake againSometimes it turned into anxieties such as losing my family like a friend, and sometimes not being able to go to school.

We children, on the other hand, were trying to forget or wrap up our worries with the school opening to the prefab next door, our friend living in the prefab on either side, maybe with a new park that will open after a while. In addition to this, we have never been together, we have never experienced before. Communal living and the desire to feel safe and protected we were hearing. Despite everything, neither school nor friends could solve the wounds of the earthquake.

However, it was necessary to resolve the concerns of the children in the middle of this turmoil by communicating in a concrete and simple way.

We interviewed Ece Akkoyunlu, who was an earthquake survivor in Iskenderun, and how they felt about the prefabricated houses where children grew up after the earthquake. Psychologist Ece Akkoyunlu, children’s earthquake and after the earthquake physiologically He said that they are more flexible to survive and take less damage than an adult. However, he underlined that this is not the case in the spirit worlds.

He stated that the flexible part of the human brain that tries to adapt itself to events and situations is more difficult in children. children more Difficulty distinguishing between abstract and concrete Of course, the way they handled the earthquake and the life after it was also quite different. At this point, we should have rebuilt the sense of trust in children by taking care, opening up space, telling the truth, even if it wasn’t like telling it to an adult.

It was tried to renew the sense of trust by playing games so that the future flashbacks of the children would be less damaged.

Psychologist Ece Akkoyunlu explains that children who are in the middle of a great turmoil laugh and play more than anyone, despite everything, stay in touch with people and -especially tactilely-, to understand the effects of the earthquake as much as their own world of meaning is enough. construct and think expressed. Children were playing many games both in tent cities and in prefabs with their new homes. But these games were earthquake games.

Of course, the children were experiencing the consequences of the earthquake, but the way they told their troubles and lived was changing. Psychologist Ece Akkoyunlu states that after this point, the quality of toys, consultants and auxiliary teams that will go to earthquake zones is vital. Because the situations that children are in now and in their future lives very likely to come back as flashbacks he was saying.

Despite everything, the children who grew up in these houses wanted to return to their old lives over time, while at the same time they wanted to build a safer and more solid future.

Despite all this, earthquake survivors, who spent a certain part of their lives growing up in these houses, going to school and playing games, are concerned about their future lives. anxious behaviors was exhibiting. Like all earthquake survivors, the children wanted to return to their old homes, schools and survivors. When it took a long time to return to their old lives, a new one was added to the concerns left over from the earthquake.

Children living in large crowds in small houses are looking forward to their future. on a safe and sound basis they wanted to establish. Because for children, being a survivor was not just living, but an effort to realize everything they dreamed of. But with one difference.. The children growing up in these houses are not going to space dream of a house that did not collapse in an earthquake and a future where all his loved ones are together. they were starting to build.