I am thirteen years old. I was in Istanbul during the Marmara earthquake. I didn’t feel the first thirty seconds of the earthquake. My dad woke me up then I heard the noise. When I heard the noise I put my arms round my dad and walked to the living room. I can’t remember how I walked. My hands were trembling with fear. Then the telephone rang, it was my Uncle – he said we should go outside straight away. We were so frightened it hadn’t even crossed our minds to go ouýtside. We put on a jumper and went outside. When we went out the whole street was full of people. When we looked at the sky there were stars in the shape of a bear.

We spent the night in the street and went back to the house at six in the morning. We put on the TV found out how violent the earthquake had been and turned the TV off.

I thought to myself “Is this the end of the world?” Despite the fact that it is three months since the earthquake, I still have that fear in a corner of my heart. There are still many people who need help.