GAZIANTEP, Feb. 9 (Xinhua) -- Nineteen-year-old Semih Birsat Orcan had big dreams for the future before his home, school and life were destroyed by a powerful earthquake that struck the southern part of Türkiye on Feb. 6 last year.
"I was preparing for the university entrance exam in the year of the earthquake, but after the disaster, there was no house, no classroom, no place left to study," Orcan told Xinhua in a recent interview in Gaziantep.
After the earthquakes, life was hard for Orcan who lives in a cramped container with his family. Thanks to the extensive support from a training center in the Nurdagi district of the Gaziantep province, Orcan is now trying to pick up his life.
"After my teachers told me about this center, I decided to take the exam this year and pursue my goals," Orcan said.
He has created a physical and psychological living space in this center.
"We can call this center our home," he said. "I'm not alone here. I have friends. We have a library. All are extra motivations to us."
The center is a part of the "social entrepreneurship, empowerment, and cohesion project" jointly established by the Gaziantep governorship and a development agency.
Emine Kurulur, a counselor at the center, told Xinhua that the center also offers several courses for adults and children covering many subjects, including chess and robotic coding.
"All the students here used to live in containers and do not have the opportunity to find a place to study, so they actively use this center," Kurulur said.
Sila Kudailga, another student at the center, remembered the night of the devastating earthquake.
"The night of February 6 was a disaster for us," Kudailga said. "We lost our home and everything, close friends, teachers, acquaintances, and the environment. We psychologically collapsed."
The two powerful earthquakes devastated more than 10 provinces in the southern part of Türkiye, claiming the lives of over 53,000 people and leaving millions of people homeless and displaced.
She said the center offered great motivations to earthquake survivors.
"As such structures and centers were opened, we recovered a little bit," Kudailga said. "Otherwise, preparing for the university exam would only be a distant dream for us...Our future will hopefully be better than our past." ■