The number of families applying to adopt children orphaned by the two deadly earthquakes that hit Southern Turkiye has significantly increased, says Derya Yanik, Turkiye’s Minister of Family and Social Services. She described the jump in the number as ''unimaginable.''
Yanik was speaking at an event organized by Turkiye Statistics Commission with the theme: Child Research and Information Program.
According to the Minister, the latest number of foster family is around 350 thousand while child adoption applications rose to more than 60 thousand.
“From 2002 to February 2023, our 19,010 children met new families. As at February 2023, another 9,000 thousand children were reunited with 7,432 foster families,'' she said.
The minister added that immediately after the earthquake of 6 February, ''there was an unimaginable number of applications from families intending to adopt children.''
Yanik said ''applications for foster families is around 350,000 while applications for child adoptions stand around 65,000.''
The family and social services minister explained that the situation ''is very important about our people’s resolution and sensitivity on protecting, nurturing and taking care of children.”
Speaking on the social support program for the Turkiye children, Minister Yanik said: “Every month we pay an average of 3,038 Turkish Lira to 162,469 children who live with their families.
By end of March, after adding figures from the earthquake hit region, the number of children receiving the support will reach about 174,000. Between 2022 and February 2023, we paid almost 982,916,000 under social support program.”
Turkiye and neighboring Syria were hit by massive earthquakes in February killing more than 60,000 people and displacing millions of others.
