In Turkey camp, young quake survivors enjoy moment of normality with face painting

OSMANIYE, Turkey (Reuters) – With whiskers and colourful cat ears painted on their faces, young survivors of last week’s earthquake at a humanitarian camp in Osmaniye, Turkey, enjoyed a moment of childhood normality on Thursday.

Chattering excitedly, the children lined up to have their faces painted by social workers and volunteers at the camp, and to take part in sports.

“We have been here for a week and all camps have this kind of psycho-social support. We may continue this for up to a year,” said Ahmet Hasim Atalay, a social worker who has been helping at the camp.

Many children were left homeless by the massive tremor that struck Turkey and Syria on Feb. 6. They have been learning to cope with what happened and with their ongoing anxiety.

(Reporting by Salem Suhaib, Deniz Uyar and Malgorzata Wojtunik, Editing by Rosalba O’Brien)