The Tell Your Story Project was carried out and successfully completed by the Mordem Art and Ecological Living Association with the support of CultureCIVIC. As part of the project, 1879 earthquake-affected children aged 5–13 took part in interactive theatre performances and puppet-making workshops at 12 different centres in central and rural Adıyaman.
Natural disasters such as earthquakes cause people a great deal of physical, psychological, economic and social harm. Without doubt, the most vulnerable group in a disaster-stricken community, whose daily routines come to a sudden end, is children. Because children who are only beginning to make sense of life are not yet mature enough to understand the damage and losses caused by disasters, it can take them a long time to overcome these effects. It is important to heal the physical and psychological damage and to strengthen once again the bonds children have with themselves, with other people and with life. It is not possible to see straight away the concrete results of support work carried out through art workshops to heal certain human emotions in children who have lost their sense of trust and to help them overcome what they have been through. However, we can say that the positive effects of all the activities carried out will emerge in the long term, at different stages of the children’s lives. Above all, we can see the healing effect of simply not leaving the disaster-affected community alone: even interacting and taking part in activities with different people within the flow of their daily lives leaves a positive mark on them.