From Rubble to Resilience: Lighting Up Resilience Beacons in Türkiye

This year, resilience has become a reality for hundreds of families impacted by last year’s devastating earthquake in Türkiye.

One of the 95 homes we evaluated in Turkiye this year belonged to Meryem Fındık, a mother from Hatay. After the earthquake, she was too afraid to return to her house, fearing for her family’s safety. Our team evaluated her home and confirmed it was structurally sound, giving Meryem the confidence to rebuild her life.

For Ganim Ekmekçi, who lost loved ones and his home, the journey was even harder. Living in a temporary home with his children and grandchildren, Ganim worked with us to create a retrofit design for his damaged house. Walls will be rebuilt, a new steel roof installed, and he and his family will finally have a safe place to call home again.

With the support of partners including Airbnb, Argosy Foundation, Skoll Foundation, Flora Family Foundation, and Cisco Foundation we’ve made strong progress for homeowners like Meryem and Ganim since we began our work in Türkiye:

• 🏠95 homes have been evaluated, helping families understand and address earthquake vulnerabilities.
• 📚A new design library has made affordable, resilient housing a reality for families, incorporating homeowner preferences into culturally appropriate house designs.
• ✅Over 400 homeowners have gained skills to rebuild safely through training and resources, including a site construction monitoring checklist.
• 👩🏻‍💻Our awareness campaigns have reached more than 90,000 people, spreading critical knowledge about safer housing. 

But there’s more to be done.

Thousands of families still need assistance to rebuild safer homes. That’s why our work on the Resilience Beacons program continues.

This includes trainings and resilience awareness events conducted through close partnerships with grassroots civil society organizations. These sessions will help women heads of household navigate the process of rebuilding.

We are also shifting power to female homeowners by helping them better participate in decision-making about rebuilding their homes. Build Change community events focus on understanding retrofitting and overcoming common challenges.

The Resilience Beacons for Turkiye program is providing critical technical assistance in housing resilience to homeowners and community members. Together, we are rebuilding more than homes — we’re rebuilding futures.