“As a mother of two, it breaks my heart.”
A month ago, the ground shook in Turkey and Syria – and when TV star Sila Sahin (37, “Gute Zeiten, Schlechte Zeiten”) talks about it today, her voice trembles. “I will never forget the pictures of fathers or mothers who hide their dead children and other children who have become orphans,” said the actress to BILD.
At least 52,000 people died, 120,000 were injured, tens of thousands are still homeless.
“For us, the earthquake is over, the people there are in the middle of it,” explains the mother of two boys (4 and 3). This also applies to Sahin herself, because: She fears for her cousin.
In Germany, Sila Sahin has to look after their two children together with her husband Samuel Radlinger – but she still worries about her cousin
“She is in the hospital with serious injuries,” reports Sila Sahin BILD and tells: “Part of my family lives there. When the earth trembled, everyone was initially able to save themselves. But when my mum’s cousin went into the house to get important things out, there was an aftershock and the walls collapsed.”
A huge shock! The cousin (39), she is a doctor, could be saved, but: “We are very worried about her,” says the mother of two. “Because it’s not clear if she’ll ever be able to walk again.”
Sila Sahin is in daily contact with her family on site. She supports and has already donated to others. “I still feel so powerless and helpless and I think I have to do more.”
And she shows her big heart! The actress continues to collect donations, now even through a self-organized event in aid of the earthquake victims. A charity dinner will be held at the KPM Hotel in Berlin on March 12th. Visitors pay 200 euros for a ticket – and THAT goes directly to the Earthquake victims in Syria and Turkey.
“Financial support is the least I can do,” says Sila. “Aftershocks are still feared and my family has forbidden me to fly down. That’s why I thought about how I can help from here.”
And Sila can understand the fear and desperation there very well. Because she herself was already affected by a terrible earthquake in Turkey. “When the severe earthquake hit Turkey in 1999, I went there with my family on vacation.”
She was only 14 at the time, but she still remembers the evening sky before all hell broke loose. “I’ve never seen the moon so big and the stars so close. A few hours later, police officers shot in the air to wake everyone up.”
4 weeks after shock earthquake Collapse during clean-up work
As the walls shook, an uncle came to Sila Sahin’s aid. He dragged her outside, seconds later the house collapsed behind them. “We then slept on the soccer field for two weeks out of fear and then drove to my mother’s home village in the mountains.”
Even now, Sila is afraid for her family there, afraid for her mother, who wants to fly back to Turkey soon and take care of the relatives. “I want to make sure that the attention doesn’t wane,” says Sila. “People there can’t just zap away from these horrific images like we can in front of the television. They will need our help for a long time to come.”