Bognor Regis man from Turkey raises money for home village devastated by earthquake
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Mr Kerten lived in Şahintepe, near Kahramanmaraş, until moving to England in his early teens. He said the earthquake devastated his home village, destroying homes, buildings, roads, and endangering the lives of friends and family.
“I got at phone call at about 3am from a friend who knows I’m from the village. Obviously I was surprised to get a phone call at that time of night, and he just said ‘is your family okay?’ and told me about the earthquake.
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Hide Ad"He had to repeat himself a couple of times because I was half-asleep, and so shocked. It’s not a call you expect to get at three in the morning. Afterwards, I tried to contact the village but I couldn’t get through because all the phone lines were down. Instead, I had to call my sister who lives in Adana to find out what happened.”
She told him that most of the houses in the village were destroyed by the disaster and that there were still people trapped under the rubble. Although none of Mr Kerten’s family members were injured or killed, but several neighbours, including a childhood friend, are still under the debris.
The earthquake, which struck central and southern Turkey, as well as parts of Syria, took place on February 6, and it is estimated to have caused 84.1 billion US dollars worth of damage.
"The town itself is completely destroyed,” he continued. “People have been left outside in the middle of winter. So far, I think about 16 people have died – most of them either very old or young children. You can’t believe it when you hear it. It takes a day just to process the information and then, as you hear more, it just goes from bad to worse.”
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Hide AdHaving already raised more than £400 for the village, Mr Kerten hopes to send proceeds from his appeal to his sister, who has been delivering crucial supplies to Şahintepe using a small van.