ANKARA, Feb. 16 (Xinhua) -- A total of 290,000 applications have been filed for becoming foster families of those children who lost contact with families due to the devastating earthquakes on Feb. 6.
The semi-official Anadolu Agency reported on Thursday that the number of applications for becoming foster families, which was normally three per day, increased to 29,000 per day after the earthquakes.
A total of 603 children had been handed over to their families after passing identity checks until Wednesday night, but there are 1,457 children whose families cannot be reached so far, the local NTV reported on Thursday.
The identities of 1,190 of these children have been determined, it said.
A total of 755 children continued to receive medical treatment at the hospitals, while 93 others were taken into institutional care after receiving treatment, the NTV reported.
Earthquake-survivor children and babies were first dispatched to hospitals for health checks and treatment, before being handed over to their families and relatives after identification.
Staff members of the Ministry of Family and Social Services have visited hospitals and care centers to identify unaccompanied children and match them with their families or relatives.
Unaccompanied earthquake victims, whose families cannot be reached after completing medical treatment, are currently under government care and protection.
"We do not know at this time whether these children have lost their families. Our first goal is to ensure that they are handed over to their families. Then, we start the process with our staff and psychologists so that these children can get out of the trauma caused by the earthquake," Musa Sahin, child services director of the Ministry of the Family and Social Services, told the Anadolu Agency.
In Türkiye, the UNICEF, in coordination with the Ministry of the Family and Social Services, has deployed social workers to the hospitals to help identify unaccompanied and separated children to make sure their basic needs are met, UNICEF spokesperson James Elder said in a briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva on Tuesday.
In addition, UNICEF has launched 10 new hotlines in the affected provinces for unaccompanied and separated children, Elder added.
The magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 earthquakes hit southeastern Türkiye on Feb. 6, killing at least 36,187 people and injuring 108,068 others so far.
Turkish authorities have suspended rescue operations in some regions, but survivors are still being pulled alive from the wreckage of their homes.
A girl named Aleyna Olmaz, 17, was rescued from the rubble of a collapsed building in the Dulkadiroglu district of Kahramanmaras province on Thursday, 248 hours after the earthquake.
"We were surprised that her body functions were intact and that her kidney functions did not deteriorate. It's an incredible thing. Her health is very good," Dr. Cengiz Dilber from Kahramanmaras University Hospital told reporters.
Two Chinese search and rescue teams departed Türkiye on Thursday as their missions came to a close.
The two teams, respectively from the southern Chinese cities of Guangzhou and Wuhan, had been based in the southern province of Kahramanmaras, the epicenter of dual earthquakes.
"We had recovered 12 people, including 11 injuries and one deceased," Yuan Jiongming, captain of the smaller team, told the local Demiroren News Agency.
He said they wished they could have saved more, adding that the team would always remember the friendliness of the people of Kahramanmaras they had experienced.
Foreign leaders and ministers continued to visit Türkiye to show solidarity in the wake of the quakes, with Prime Minister of Pakistan Shahbaz Sharif, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, and Costa Rican Foreign Minister Arnoldo Andre-Tinoco meeting Turkish officials on Thursday. ■
