Entire buildings collapsing. People – the lucky ones – being pulled out of the rubble. Thousands of families still hoping to see their loved ones alive.
This is what we’re seeing in Turkey in Syria after a devastating earthquake and its aftershock hit the region on February 6, 2023.
Updated on February 19, 2023
What happened is extremely tragic and very straightforward: a 7.8-magnitude earthquake with an epicenter in Turkey’s Gaziantep province. It’s said to be one of the strongest earthquakes in the region in a century.
The numbers have been increasing daily and, after two weeks, have reached tens of thousands injured and over 45,000 killed.
This is a disaster of a scale that’s difficult to imagine. It is awful when it strikes anywhere, but in this case, it did affect an extremely vulnerable population of Syrian refugees living in Turkey, in addition to Turkish families themselves.
As various civil society organizations, disaster relief agencies, and even international rescue teams are doing what they can with the resources they have, it is simply not enough. On top of that, information about relief efforts in the region controlled by the Syrian regime isn’t reliable, making it difficult to estimate the real impact of the disaster and what is being done.
It’s easy to think this is too much and too complicated for us to help in any significant way. Yet this is when we come together.
The people of Turkey and Syria desperately need humanitarian assistance.
We know we can’t help everyone.
But we can help someone.
Invite you to stand with the people who have lost so much, if not all, and if you’re in a position to donate, I encourage you to do so.
Just like I would like my humanity to be seen if my family and I were trapped under the rubble, this is the time to see that humanity in others.
There is no “them”, there is only “us.”
There are various international and regional humanitarian aid and disaster relief organisations working on the ground that you can donate to.
Here are some recommendations:
- Doctors Without Borders
- International Rescue Committee
- International Medical Corps
- The White Helmets
- Molham
- Takatoat
- Your national chapter of The International Committee of the Red Cross
I know it’s easy to think that we don’t have enough to be generous. But I think it’s disasters like this one that can remind us how untrue that is.
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