Action in Crisis: Turkey-born Esin Pektas on Her Fundraiser and Trip For Relief Efforts in Malatya
By Defne Aydintasbas
Esin Pektas, PE, RA is a dual licensed New York State Professional Engineer and Registered Architect with over twenty years of experience in architecture, engineering, urban planning and construction administration. Esin's practice is focused on infrastructure, skyscrapers, new construction, building materials, facade engineering, and adaptive renovations specific to New York City's unique historical and environmental context. As the Major Capital Projects Program Director at the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey, Esin is working on the mega transportation and infrastructure projects of the region including the new Midtown Bus Terminal Replacement designed by Norman Foster and partners.
Esin is based in NYC, but her family is from the Malatya region in Turkey that was badly hit by the earthquake. As soon as it happened, Esin managed to pull together a significant fundraiser, jumped on a plane, and threw herself at aid work in the region. She, together with her brother, rented two long-haul trucks to bring supplies, mobile kitchens and bathrooms to earthquake victims. Upon hearing about this, Defne Aydintasbas, also originally from Turkey, interviewed Esin on her efforts, and on taking action in time of crisis.
DA: Where did you grow up? Where did you train for architecture?
EP: I was born in Ankara and I grew up in multiple cities. I first studied architecture at Yildiz Technical University in Istanbul before studying a full second degree in structural engineering at City College of New York. I then help internships in France, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxemburg. Since then, I’ve been practicing in New York for twenty years mostly as an engineer.
What kind of work were you doing prior to the earthquake?
As Program Director of the Major Capital Projects at the Port Authority, I work on the mega transportation and infrastructure projects of the region including the new Midtown Bus Terminal Replacement project designed by Foster.
When the earthquake first hit, what went through your mind?
I have volunteered, as a builder, in post-disaster relief projects throughout my career. My first reaction was, “What can I do, where do we start?” Only this time, I didn’t realize the scale and magnitude of the devastation until I went to the earthquake region in the second week of the disaster. It was miles and miles and miles of destruction and there was not a single building left that could be occupied.
Esin, on the site of destruction in the Malatya region of Turkey.
Destruction after the earthquake.
How did you organize and spring into action?
My brother was in Mersin, a beach town about seven hours driving distance from the region, when the earthquake hit. He is a bank manager. Although he was far enough to be safe and sound, the bank was closed, and many of the city inhabitants were sleeping in their cars due to strong aftershocks felt in their city. He started sending supplies immediately after the earthquake. I guess we learned this reflex reaction from our grandmother, who always had a “saving the neighborhood, one neighbor at a time” mentality, even in peaceful times if someone was in a financial or a health crisis. When my brother got started, I took time off from work and met him in Mersin to help with the earthquake relief.
Walk us through your days. What was the work that you did?
We started driving from Mersin on the highway and went through the Maras Pazarcik-Erkenek-Golbasi- Malatya-Cavusoglu-Karaca Village-Hatay route. The situation was just beyond words incomprehensible — we encountered approximately fourteen hours a day of driving with not a single building standing sound.
The scariest part of the journey was a tunnel through a mountain that was cracking along the ceiling and walls while we were driving through. I came back with a whole different appreciation and consciousness about my work in building infrastructure. This was such a sad reminder that good infrastructure construction practices and policies are a matter of life and death, and that good infrastructure is crucial for public health, safety, and welfare. One memory I will not forget was, because we didn’t know the scale of destruction, we planned to eat or buy food on the way. Although we were in a rush, I insisted on getting pastry from a pastry shop I like near my brother’s place. I bought a ton of pastry before we left for the road. It turned out to be our only source of food during the entire journey since all and every shop on the way was destroyed.
“...good infrastructure construction practices and policies are a matter of life and death, and that good infrastructure is crucial for public health, safety, and welfare.”
Thankfully, I had a network of container building suppliers from previous humanitarian projects I was involved in. One is a refugee center named “We Are All Neighbors,” and another one called “Built by Women for Women.” My brother also has his client network of local business owners through the bank. We were able to buy supplies quickly and order a total of ten containers.
The containers included two community kitchen containers filled with kitchen equipment, portable cooking gas units, utensils and long-lasting food e.g. beans, chickpeas, rice, bulgur, pasta, tea, sugar, salt etc. Two others were community hygiene containers with showers and bathrooms. Then we had five housing units filled with supplies to be used by thirty-seven families staying at tents at the moment in Cavusoglu, including hygiene supplies, underwear, socks, foldable mattresses, and four two-ton water storage units with faucets etc. Finally, one of the containers was a classroom with an A/C unit, desks and lockers for thirty-six students and one teacher. The Bornova Municipality has generously built the existing tents for the thirty-seven families. They will be the ones helping us with coordination at the site for placement of containers etc.
One of the containers with food and supplies.
Tell me about the fundraising campaign that was a part of this effort.
I personally decided to dedicate all of my income this year to the earthquake relief. I plan to order more containers and supplies throughout the year.
Meanwhile, my husband Chris Trapani immediately started a fundraising campaign on GoFundMe. Our friends and family helped through the fundraiser while my brother and I were lending a hand on the grounds. Next, my friends from college will have a children’s atelier when the classroom container arrives at the site. I will try to organize more psychological support workshops for children and adults to help recover from the trauma.
Besides Malatya, we are turning our attention from supply runs towards targeted assistance in Hatay as well, along with my two best friends Linda and Gunay. Currently we are working to provide container units for a special needs school in Antakya whose facilities were destroyed. We will start a new fundraiser where further donations will be shared with this initiative, and others that will benefit women and children in the earthquake zone in Hatay.
“Once people gather, even in the most devastating moment in history, there is warmth and humanity.”
Most people are unsure of the value of their individual impact. Can you comment on the impact of individuals in the recent earthquake?
We weren’t acting with a specific impact plan in the beginning, but we just realized when we went to the region how big of a moral support it was for people to see us just being there. It instantly lifted spirits of the people everywhere we went. Once people gather, even in the most devastating moment in history, there is warmth and humanity. As sad as our observations of extreme destruction and loss of lives was, we heard a million jokes anywhere from congratulating each other for buying a fault line and still having to pay the mortgage on it to the ruined furniture. We listened to some wonderful memories of people who lost their home and loved ones.
You might think one person won’t have much impact in a scale of such disaster — and yes it feels like a drop in the ocean financially and physically — but just asking people how they were doing and letting them know they are not alone, was the biggest impact. I feel very appreciative of the fact that we were able to make difference in the lives of fellow humans who may have been strangers at the start. I’m looking forward to helping more for a faster recovery. Wishing patience to all that lost their loved ones. I have learned a Swahili sentence during a humanitarian project built in Moshi, Tanzania: kidogo kidogo pole pole. It means slowly slowly one by one. We can make a difference kidogo kidogo pole pole.