Amna: In the nearly three weeks
since deadly quakes hit southern
Turkey and northern Syria, the
focus has shifted from rescue to
rehabilitation.
The task ahead is not only to
reconstruct homes, but also to
rebuild lives, especially for
the youngest victims. Special
correspondent Jane Ferguson
reports.
Jane: In the tent city of
gaziantep, life after the
earthquakes is all but an
endless struggle.
Hatice demir is battling cancer,
and now homelessness.
Learning to live with the bare
minimum.
>> I used to wake up in a warm
room, but now I'm chasing gas
stations, running around looking
for a sink to wash up.
Our opportunities are gone, our
self-confidence is gone.
Jane: Like her, a million Turks
are now without a home.
Hundreds here stood in line in
the cold for a shower.
The public swimming pool has
been turned into a sanitation
center.
Efforts to find the living under
the rubble have ended.
Now a focus on the next stage,
rebuilding.
Yasir behrakci is picking up the
pieces of his life.
>> We cannot bring back the
dead.
But because we survived, we are
trying to get out whatever is
left.
We have to live, we have no
other choice.
>> Luckily, that mind shift and
work is getting started.
We were in adyaman which as you
know, is 60% to 70% destroyed.
They are already clearing large
plots of land to put containers
on.
Jane: Tom Smith is an American
air force veteran, volunteering
in Turkey with Washington DC
based charity project hope.
>> The challenge is there, when
you talk about rebuilding, it is
not just hey, here is the house
we are going to build.
It is going to be what is that
intermediary step, which is
basic housing units.
Jane: Smith and his team have
been assessing the needs of
those displaced by the
earthquake.
>> The need for sanitation.
Everyone loves that hot shower,
the ability to wash their hands,
go to a safe latrine and safe
drinking water.
It is still cold here, 20
degrees at night, 40 degrees
during the day.
People are living in tents.
Jane: And yet, attempts to move
on have been disrupted again, by
the heaving Earth.
On Monday, another large quake
in antakya terrified already
traumatized, displaced families.
>> This is what we call complex
trauma, because ok, the incident
happened the first time, but now
it is reoccurring.
We are continuously and
recurrently experiencing
aftershocks, and the people are
continuously going through the
trauma again and again.
Jane: Rawan hamadeh is also with
project hope and provides
psychological support to
earthquake victims and rescue
staff.
She says the last few weeks have
been especially tough on the
youngest here.
>> We hear stories about
children going mute after the
earthquake and not being able to
talk or to express themselves in
any way.
We are seeing bed-wetting issues
and of course, disturbances in
sleep and eating patterns.
We are seeing children who are
extremely attached to their
mother.
They wouldn't leave their side.
Or extreme isolation from
others.
Jane: Volunteers are trying to
bring joy back to their lives.
An effort to let children, be
children.
Infants across the border in
northwest Syria are also in
desperate need.
This clinic in the quake-hit
jenderes is overrun with
patients.
But running out of medicines.
A U.N. Delegation finally
arrived here, over two weeks
since the earthquakes.
>> I'm shocked by the scale of
the disaster.
Never seen anything like it.
People need food, they need
water, medicines, sanitation.
The needs are huge.
Jane: A day after the first wave
of quakes, this family survived
against all odds.
Mostafa el sayed, his wife and
three children were some of the
few to make it out alive
.
-- Make it out alive from harem
city where 800 people died.
At the that time, this moment of
his little dollar -- daughter's
rescue was a rare glimmer of
hope in a battered Syria.
The newshour caught up with them
two weeks later.
>> I'm five right now, right?
Five levels fell on top of us.
We were calling out, civil
defense, please help us.
We are going to die.
There was a man who heard us.
They said they are going to
rescue us in the morning.
I was like woah!
I was sleeping, sleeping,
sleeping and then I knew they
were coming to take us out.
We were sleeping and there was a
small earthquake and then there
was another one and the rocks
fell on top of us.
There was dirt in my ear.
And then the civil defense came
and they rescued us and they
took us to the hospital and then
they took us to grandpa's house.
Jane: Elaf and thousands of
Syrian and Turkish kids like her
have escaped with their lives.
The quality of those lives now
depend on the -- on an
unprecedented massive operation
to repair and rebuild.
For the pbs newshour, I am Jane
Ferguson.
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