Turkey and Syria Earthquake Appeal

School in a Bag have pledged to fund 1000 SchoolBags for victims of the catastrophic double earthquakes that struck Turkey and Syria in February 2023. These SchoolBags will enable children to continue with their education in the recovery phase of the disaster.

School in a Bag will partner with Hand in Hand for Aid & Development, who are working on the ground in both countries, and will distribute the SchoolBags to the children directly through their established programme of works. The scale of this project has increased thanks to the generosity of a logistics company, who have offered free transportation of our SchoolBags, and surplus aid, from the UK to Turkey.

The earthquakes have crippled the infrastructure of cities, towns and villages causing a massive loss of life, flattening built structures and rupturing services. Conditions are desperate for those who survived and their navigation through the emergency response phase in to the recovery phase will require a united response for the foreseeable future.

SchoolBags and the contents within them are of paramount importance for families and children displaced by disaster for two reasons: Routine and Therapy.

Routine: SchoolBags enable education and learning, which for millions of children worldwide is carried out in a structured timetable in schools. This environment creates routine and we know children maximise their potential when routine is the norm. With schools and their contents destroyed, education for the children will resume in. makeshift shelters with little or no resources. The SchoolBags will provide children with the resources they need to continue their education and make the role of teaching a much easier one.

Therapy: Children who have witnessed atrocities, lost family members and experienced trauma often find it very hard to communicate their feelings verbally. Through the contents of a SchoolBag, feelings and expression can be written or drawn providing an outlet for trauma and therapy assisting in their rehabilitation, post disaster.

In addition, for families who have lost everything, the provision of a brand new SchoolBag can provide a level of positivity and become one less item that burdened families have to try and provide for.

Please watch this video from our partner in Nepal, who received SchoolBags in the aftermath of their earthquakes in 2015, and firsthand witnessed the impact they had on the children and families:

. Please help us provide for them in this desperate time of need.