RC Trustee Çağan Şekercioğlu is a conservation ecologist, ornithologist, tropical biologist, and nature photographer. He lost his beloved friend Önder Cırık, who became a victim of the Grand İsias Hotel in Adıyaman during the Kahramanmaraş earthquake. Cırık was a founding member of Şekercioğlu’s environmental organization KuzeyDoğa and his frequent collaborator.
My entire KuzeyDoğa NGO team drove from Kars to Mersin for Önder’s funeral on February 10. I could not join them as I was teaching at the University of Utah. To honor Önder’s memory, they identified unassisted mountain villages in the earthquake zone. They found remote mountain villages in Doğanşehir, Malatya that were hit hard, under snow and experiencing temperatures down to -25oC. Their most urgent needs were permanent tents with wood stoves. We contacted a tentmaker in Ankara we knew who said he could produce up to 50 tents with wood stoves in a few days.
On February 12, I asked my RC 93 classmates for their support. By February 15, 700,000 TL for 50 tents had already been collected and there were still more donations coming. With the extra money, we hired two semi-trucks to carry the tents and stove parts, 5 tons of firewood, 2 tons of coal, essential supplies and lots of dry food the villagers also needed.
Members of my team met in Fındıkköy, Malatya before sunrise on February 18, and with the help of the woman village chief, handed out the tents in person to the needy families one week after we had identified the village. Together with the villagers, the team set up a few tents and wood stoves to make sure they were done correctly. The tents are still providing vital shelter to this day.
I am especially grateful to my RC 93 friends, in particular Batubay Özkan and Seha İşmen for their help in organizing this campaign and Gökhan Koç for his field presence in the earthquake zone and his most generous support, and to all my other classmates, their friends, families, and other RC graduates who supported this campaign.
Published April 2023
