Exhausted yet defiant, two volunteers are putting aside their emotions to help survivors devastated by an earthquake that has claimed more than 12,000 lives.

Ceren Ugurluer, president of Empathy Association in Gaziantep, and her sister Canan Severoglu have been working night and day to coordinate the distribution of food and supply parcels to the worst affected parts of Turkey.

Both are from the city which they have seen destroyed – a scene replicated across southeast Turkey where more than 6,000 buildings have been flattened.

However, there’s “no time to cry” or be upset; their priority is sending provisions to those places where food, water, and clothes are scarce – in villages and towns outside their own city, across Turkey. Already they have helped thousands.

Ms Ugurluer told Sky News: “We could reach more than 10,000 people for food – we could reach more than 14,000 people to just give away bread, and then we had more than 4,000 people that we gave winter jackets to, and [we have] unlimited [amounts of] water and milk, we cannot count.”

Two hundred and fifty volunteers have been joining them in the Sahinbey Empati School – also founded by the charity – where hundreds have been flocking to escape the biting cold and get some rest.

Ms Ugurluer added: “We have over 200 people staying here. There are no beds as it’s a school but there are blankets and people are finding space where they can.

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“Our school is intact with no damage but all of their houses have been destroyed.”

She is still anxious following the tremors.

“Even when I hear the kettle I think it might be another earthquake,” she said.

‘It’s not an option for us’

Five minutes walk away from the school is Empathy’s soup kitchen.

Trucks laden with flour, rice, pulses, and meat enter its gates, as do thousands of survivors who are served a meal of lentil and bean soup, with freshly made bread.

When the sisters were asked how tired they were, they said: “We have to do it. It’s not an option for us. We feel exhausted but we cannot take a nap. Not now.

“There are hundreds of people with nothing. They are sitting in parks, in empty mosques… wherever.

“We are sending supplies to them. We have to be united with everyone.”

‘We will cry later’

Empathy was set up in 2009 and is a trusted organisation in Gaziantep, which is 20 miles south of the earthquake’s epicentre.

Donors supply them with food and money from all over the world, including Germany and the UK, but the association is pleading for more.

Ms Severoglu, born and raised in the city, has lost family and friends in the disaster but remains defiant.

“We will cry later. We still think there are people under the rubble and there is an opportunity to save them,” she said.

“I believe there is hope and I believe in miracles.”

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