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WATCH: Jersey coffee shop owner helping to rebuild in Turkey

WATCH: Jersey coffee shop owner helping to rebuild in Turkey

Wednesday 12 April 2023

WATCH: Jersey coffee shop owner helping to rebuild in Turkey

Wednesday 12 April 2023


A Turkey-born islander and café owner has returned to the country where she was born to help people rebuild their lives following the devastating earthquake there in February.

Selda Kumcur, who runs Cargo and the Yard alongside her partner Liam Montgomery, was born in Turkey and spent the early part of her childhood there before leaving at the age of five.

For that reason, she said: "This cause is very close to my heart." 

On 6 February, a 7.8 magnitude Earthquake struck Southern and Central Turkey; one of the strongest earthquakes ever to hit the region. 

Selda_and_Liam_The_Yard.jpeg

Pictured: Selda Kumkur and Liam Montgomery, set up Cargo in 2018 and later The Yard at Jersey Museum.

An area of 350,000km2, an area about the size of Germany, was severely damaged. Nearly 60,000 people were killed and around 1.5 million people have been left homeless. 

So far, the rescue effort has been enormous, drawing in more than 141,000 volunteers from 94 different countries.

But while the earthquake may have disappeared from the headlines of national newspapers, its effects are still ongoing and relief work has continually struggled to improve the lives of those affected. 

 
 
 
View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Selda Kumcur (@seldathe1st)

Since arriving in Turkey on March 26, Selda has been working with the American NGO All Hands and Hearts.

An international disaster-relief organisation, All Hands and Hearts' Disaster Assistance Response Team arrived in Istanbul, on February 7, just 24 hours after the earthquakes struck. 

Selda has been volunteering in Elbistan, the region of Turkey she was originally from.

Selda.jpeg

Pictured: Selda Kumcur has been volunteering for International NGO All Hands and Hearts.

She was born in a small village just south of the Earthquakes epicentre. Some of her uncles had their homes destroyed in the earthquake and have since left the area.

She said: "I've never experienced war of anything like that thankfully and you see these kinds of scenes on TV, but to actually see entire cities, entire villages completely gone... It's like a bomb has exploded.

"Elbistan is now pretty much a ghost town, it's been reduced to rubble, everyone has left." 

She mentioned how, since the earthquake, the Turkish government's Disaster and Emergency Management Authority has been assessing the structural soundness of the buildings that survived the initial earthquake, and demolishing those deemed unsafe.

"There's diggers clawing at dilapidated buildings... Pretty much anything in a 30km radius is getting demolished by the government." 

Rubble.jpeg

Pictured: "It's like a bomb has exploded." 

As well as the state of the buildings, the human tragedy is just as acute.

Selda said: "Wherever you look there are tents and tents and tents and tents. Most of the campers have been set up by the Turkish Government, but really the Government is not responding quickly enough and so people have made their own tents out of things like sticks and tarp."

She added: "Even though it has been stopped by the news, the urgency, the tragedy is still there."

Since arriving in Turkey, Selda has been working in a camp set up by Kaf Kokektif, an organisation set up by four musicians from Istanbul in the aftermath of the earthquake.

Providing shelter for more than 5,000 people, they set up shelter, kitchens and sanitation services, as well as bakeries, playgrounds for children and even a temporary cinema. 

Displaced_Persons_Camp_.jpeg

Pictured: "Tents and tents and tents and tents." 

As well as helping to prepare food in the the camp's kitchen - "I've chopped hundreds of vegetables...my fingers are so chopped up, I'm not a great chopper" - Selda has also been helping to lay the foundations for a new community centre right in the centre of the displaced person's camp. 

Selda will be in Turkey until the beginning of May, and is currently fundraising for All Hands and Hearts.

Click HERE to donate.

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