Enfield North MP Feryal Clark on the local response to the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria

One of the few things you can take solace in after such a devastating event is the responses and acts of others. Enfield has truly stepped up.

The scenes from the devastation caused by the 7.8 and 7.5 magnitude earthquakes in Turkey and Syria are heartbreaking. Like many members of the British Turkish/Kurdish community in Enfield, my family woke up on Monday, 6^th February trying to contact loved ones and relatives. We were incredibly lucky to find out that the majority of our family were safe.

Thousands of families have not been so lucky. Victims were trapped under collapsed buildings and their loved ones, with communication to the region limited, even took to social media to call for help. Feeling totally helpless, many could do little more than take to Twitter to raise the alarm and call for help for relatives who were trapped under collapsed building.

While the international response to this disaster has been immense – and I am grateful to our own government for immediately sending over search-and-rescue and medical teams – the community response in Enfield and across North London has been incredible. It has touched me the most.

I spent that Monday at an Alevi community centre in Enfield. Seeing families there talking to loved ones and watching on, via a WhatsApp video call, while family members tried desperately to dig through the rubble was heart-rending.

The feeling of desperation grew as time passed and as people waited longer and longer for help to reach them. But after this came action. The response has been heart-warming; it has brought the community together.

This month I have visited numerous community centres in and around Enfield, whose members have been spending days and nights organising aid to be sent to Turkey via trucks and holding fundraisers in order to send much-needed monetary assistance. I will continue to visit local community groups to show my solidarity and support efforts.

The number of local faith groups – including Jewish, Sikh, Christian and Muslim – which came to visit the local community centres to show their support and make donations has been great to see. Even our primary schools across Enfield and across North London have held fundraising events.

In the coming weeks, we will learn more of the scale of this disaster. And we must ask questions about how thousands of buildings, supposedly designed to withstand these kinds of events, were reduced to rubble in a matter of minutes. But for now, the focus both internationally and in the disaster zones must be on those who remain in Turkey and Syria and have had their lives destroyed.

Since the news of the earthquake came in, I have questioned both the foreign secretary and prime minister on the government’s response to the earthquake. I continue to work with my fellow MPs to support our constituents who have been personally affected by this disaster.

It is hard to see now how some of the areas in Turkey and Syria will begin to rebuild. But I know the community here in Enfield and in all of North London will continue to do all they can to support those in such dire need and I call on our government and Turkey to do the same.

Enfield North constituents can contact Feryal Clark:
Call 0208 804 4543
Email [email protected]

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