Caring Britons donate
BRITONS have donated more than £50million to support victims of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria which has claimed more than 25,000 lives.
The 7.8 magnitude quake, the most devastating to have hit the region since 1939, has left hospitals struggling to cope with 80,000 injured men, women and children.
More than a million people have lost their homes, with many struggling to cope with freezing conditions at night.
The Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), which brings together 15 leading UK aid charities, last night revealed it had raised £53million since Wednesday, when it launched its nationwide appeal.
The figure includes £5million from the UK Government.
Survivors were still being located yesterday. In Antakya, rescue workers pulled 13-year-old Arda Can Ovun from the ruins of a building after 128 hours, wrapping him in foil and bracing his neck as he was lifted free from the ground on a stretcher.
And in the eastern city of Diyarbakir, a 55-year-old woman was pulled from the rubble.
However, another woman who had been rescued on Friday in Kirikhan died in hospital yesterday.
Turkey’s disaster and management authority, Afad, was expected today to shift the priority from search and rescue to delivering humanitarian aid.
“Some people came out yesterday but now there is no hope. This building is too shattered for life,” said Soner Zamir, as he gazed at the ruins of the building in Kahramanmaras, near the quake’s epicentre in southern Turkey, where his parents and grandparents had lived.
Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan promised to start work on rebuilding cities “within weeks”, acknowledging hundreds of thousands of buildings were now uninhabitable.
More than 30,000 humanitarian workers have responded to his plea for international assistance following the earthquake, which has killed 21,000 in Turkey and 4,000 in Syria.
Many residents of rebel-held northwest Syria had already been displaced from other parts of the country that were taken back by pro-government forces during the ongoing civil war, but are now being made homeless again.
“On the first day we slept in the streets. The second day we slept in our cars. Then we slept in other people’s homes,” said Ramadan Sleiman, 28, whose family had fled eastern Syria to the town of Jandaris, which was badly damaged in the quake.
But while the larger NGOS continued to focus on major cities, British charity Re:act was today preparing to deliver shelter, food and medical aid to outlying
0370 60 60 610 areas. It will also be helping to recover dead bodies.
The charity, which consists mainly of military veterans as well as a smaller percentage of blue light responders, has offered crucial “last-mile logistics” in disaster-stricken Haiti, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Mozambique and Ukraine.
Director of operations Ben Lampard confirmed the charity had been tasked by Afad to secure shelter and help with body recovery in the town of Islahiye.
“It is clear that we are transitioning now from the search and rescue phase to delivering humanitarian aid.
“We are in the awful phase of the clean-up of bodies, and we will help with that too.”
Re:act’s international operations manager Paul Taylor has been in Turkey since Wednesday, assessing where the charity can be of most help while waiting for formal permission to assist.
“What we have seen here compares to the worst we have come across.
“Survivors walk around in a daze, unable to fully process what has happened to their loved ones and their lives.
“People are burning what they can find to make fires. Those who have cars stay in them, those who don’t spend nights walking as they cradle their children, because sleeping would be fatal,” said Paul, 53.
Because of its size, Re:act does not receive DEC funds. To donate visit:
The Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) is raising urgent funds to help people affected by the devastating earthquakes in Turkey and Syria. The umbrella group of UK charities co-ordinates appeals to raise money, and the Prince and Princess of Wales made personal donations to it on Thursday. Visit dec.org.uk or call