These women are very different… They work for the municipality and save lives

• These women are very different… They work for the municipality and save lives.
• Only women participated in the special exercise held on a specific day.
• Bursa’s women rescue teams played a role in the rescue of dozens of people during the earthquake on February 6th.

Women working at Osmangazi Municipality; taking part in the search and rescue team established within the municipality, rushed to the aid of numerous citizens. After the earthquakes on February 6th, the women volunteers who led the rescue of many individuals in the region conducted a special exercise on International Women’s Day, March 8th, rescuing the injured from the rubble.

Within the Disaster Affairs Directorate of Osmangazi Municipality, a Search and Rescue team consisting of 100 volunteers operates. Of these 100 personnel, 15 are women working in various departments of the municipality. The Osmangazi Municipality Search and Rescue team holds an AFAD mid-level search and rescue accreditation. Throughout the year, these heroic women, prepared to respond to earthquakes, floods, and fires through regular drills, have participated in forest fires in Van, Izmir, Antalya, and Marmaris. They also took part in rescue efforts during the flood disasters in Kastamonu and Sinop, and most recently, the earthquakes centered around Kahramanmaraş on February 6, 2023, saving many lives. The women from Osmangazi, who have earned everyone’s admiration with their successful efforts, demonstrated their readiness for duty by conducting a new exercise on International Women’s Day to perform their duties successfully in the event of a disaster.

Stating that she joined the Osmangazi Municipality Search and Rescue team entirely voluntarily to save lives and make a difference in people’s lives, Işılhan Akgün said, “I have been serving in the search and rescue team for 10 years. I work as a nurse in the medical part of the team. I assist both my colleagues and the injured rescued from the rubble. I also participated in the Kahramanmaraş earthquake. I provided initial intervention to the injured individuals our team pulled out of the wreckage and handed them over to the 112 teams. I intervened in about 10 injured citizens in the earthquake zone. Also, some of our team members were injured, and I provided intervention for them as well. It is very satisfying to be able to help people; if women want, they can achieve anything.”

Emphasizing that their main goal is to be helpful to people, Özlem Suatar, who joined the Osmangazi Municipality Search and Rescue team entirely voluntarily, said, “Our main goal is to be able to benefit people. We have learned very useful information here. We have training sessions every two months. We conduct drills to be able to assist our citizens in natural disasters. My phone rang in the early morning after the Kahramanmaraş earthquake, and it was said, ‘There has been an earthquake, and we need to go to Kahramanmaraş.’ I left home within 15 minutes. The weather conditions were very bad. We couldn’t assess the magnitude of the earthquake and the extent of the destruction when we left. We reached the earthquake zone after 17 hours. We conducted our work in the region. We stayed in tents, and there was an earthquake shaking every 5 minutes. We got used to those as well. Ambulance sirens and hearses on one side, and on the other side, our efforts to rescue our citizens. Our psychology was very bad there. But we focused on rescuing our citizens. There was a girl named Irmak; after 7 hours of work, we pulled her out of the wreckage. I provided psychological support by staying by her side until she was handed over to the health teams. In such situations, we need to learn what we can do in advance. We will work more, conduct more drills. First of all, our Mayor Mustafa Dündar, our directors, and our other colleagues supported us a lot. Today is March 8th, International Women’s Day, and we conducted our exercise only with female staff. Women can actually do everything. After volunteering, there is nothing women cannot do. A woman can work with a Hilti tool, or if there is no need in the disaster area, she can cook. We have seen the benefits of women in every aspect. We encourage them, and if they take a step, they can achieve much better than us.”