Volunteers from Texas are stationed in Turkey this week, trying to help earthquake victims in a city they say looks like something out of an apocalypse movie.
“I would say about 80 percent of the city is no longer livable,” says Texas Baptist Men spokesperson Robert Watson. “And it’s a town of about 400,000.”
He’s stationed in Antakya, Turkey, where devastating earthquakes decimated much of the city back in February.
Volunteers with Texas Baptist Men are building temporary homes for the quarter of the population unable to evacuate. The shelters are dome-shaped, made out of tin and Hardie board with styrofoam insulation.
“It gives them somewhere decent to live while they get their homes rebuilt,” Watson says
TBM volunteers are building about three houses a day. While they’re there, they’re teaching the people how to build them on their own, too. Watson says they seem thankful.
“Amazingly grateful. Grown men … are teary-eyed,” he says. “We’re here in the middle of Ramadan, one of the big festivals of Islam, but it doesn’t seem to be much of a celebratory time for them, really. Most of them are devastated.”
For information about how to support TBM as they continue their work in Turkey, click here.
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