In the early hours of Monday 6 February, the first of a series of devastating earthquakes struck southern Turkey and northern Syria, with another hitting the region on 20 February. At the time of writing towards the end of the month, more than 50,000 people are known to have lost their lives, and thousands more are missing. Hundreds of thousands have been injured or displaced. The scale of the devastation and human loss is unfathomable – and another humanitarian tragedy is likely to unfold in the coming weeks, as the homeless are forced to rely on grievously inadequate provisions.
Governmental organisations, together with various international charities and NGOs, are doing their best to respond to the disaster. Search and rescue efforts comprised the first wave of work but, as time