Children of Turkish tent city reflect their dreams on walls

By Ozgun Tiran and Mesut Karaduman

GAZIANTEP, Türkiye (AA) - Children in the tent city of Türkiye’s quake-hit Gaziantep province are painting their hopes for a bright future on the walls.

The activity under the Youth Ministry are held in the Islahiye district to protect children from the trauma of the earthquake.

Graffiti artist Senol Karakaya teaches children how to paint murals.

Karakaya told Anadolu that they organize activities to contribute to the psychosocial development of children.

"We paint the walls to touch the souls of the children, to put smiles on their faces, and to heal their wounds,” he said.

“We see that the children who are insecure and afraid to go out are happy when they come here and play with the colors,” he said.

Stressing that they aim to keep children's morale and motivation high, he said that they work with 50 children every day.

They were working on visuals that would enable children to open the door to a new world in their imaginations rather than the trauma of this earthquake, he added.

At least 44,374 people have been killed by two strong earthquakes that jolted southern Türkiye.

The 7.7 and 7.6 magnitude earthquakes, centered in the Kahramanmaras province, affected more than 13 million people across 11 provinces, including Adana, Adiyaman, Diyarbakir, Gaziantep, Hatay, Kilis, Malatya, Osmaniye, Elazig and Sanliurfa.

* Writing by Gozde Bayar