The governor of Hatay and his wife bring light to our hearts

Hatay Governor Mustafa Masatlı arrived soon after the Feb. 6 earthquake and lived through the devastated streets of the province. There was no place to stay, no water and nowhere to wash. His wife initially went to Ankara, but returned with their children a month and a half later.

“Wherever you are, we are there,” she told him. That, the article says, was how the light in Hatay's heart began.

Esra Masatlı, a teacher, soon found that 6,447 children in the ruined city had been left without one or both parents. She immediately began leading a support project called “The Light in Our Hearts.” Emine Erdoğan, the wife of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, provided strong support, and the wives of provincial and district officials joined the effort.

The article describes their work as a “mobilization of hearts.” The women took responsibility for orphaned children and tried to offer them the warmth of a mother, from a warm bed and hot soup to colorful fairs. The writer says the effort represents the human side of Hatay's recovery, beyond billions of dollars in investment and the reconstruction of the city.

During a tour of Hatay with Governor Masatlı, the writer presents the officials' work as an act of compassion carried out amid exhaustion, deprivation and the trauma of children searching the rubble for parents who were no longer there.

“

Wherever you are, we are there.