Red Cross Blogs

How the Red Cross is helping in Turkey

By Ellie Matthews
October 24, 2011 at 10:40 am

[Updated on 26 October: The Turkish Red Crescent has now asked for international support and we have launched an emergency appeal. Thank you for all donations to the Turkey Earthquake Appeal!]

Since Turkey was hit by a 7.2-magnitude earthquake yesterday morning (Sunday 23 October), the Turkish Red Crescent has been working to help survivors and reach people trapped in rubble.

The Turkish government has confirmed that more than 200 people have been killed, but there are fears this number will increase. It is estimated more than 1,000 people have been injured.

One of the strengths of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is that, with organisations based in 186 countries, we almost always have people on the scene responding immediately after a disaster strikes.

Turkish Red Crescent workers and volunteers have already rescued an unconfirmed number of survivors from the rubble of a student dormitory which collapsed in the city of Ercis, which has a population of 75,000 and is close to the Iranian border.

Red Crescent offices in Ankara, Erzurum, Mus, Adana, Diyarbakir, and Manisa have sent teams of disaster responders and supplies to the affected region. Over 2,000 tents, 7,500 blankets, 100 stoves, bread, water and food parcels are on the way to the site of the disaster and many more stocks are being organised for distribution.

Soup kitchens have been set up for those who have lost their homes or are unwilling to re-enter them, fearing aftershocks. The blankets and tents will be particularly critical as temperatures fall to close to freezing overnight. Electricity and telephone lines are also down in a number of areas of the remote Van province. A tent city is being set up in the stadium in Ercis.

What happens now?

The Turkish Red Crescent will assess the scale of the disaster and what level of support people need.

Along with a Geneva-based co-ordinating body, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, they will decide whether or not to ask other Red Cross and Crescent National Societies, such as the British Red Cross, for support. That support might be in the form of money, supplies or specialist personnel.

We appreciate it can be a frustrating wait for supporters who want to give money to help people affected by a particular disaster, but we need to take our lead from the experts on the ground before opening donation channels. We have a responsibility to make sure we can spend your money in a particular context before we ask you for it.

If you want to make sure we are able to respond quickly in an emergency, you might consider giving to our Disaster Fund, from which we often use money in the initial response to a disaster, before we launch an emergency appeal.

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Tags: disaster fund, earthquake, International, International Federation, Turkey, Turkey Earthquake Appeal, Turkish Red Crescent

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This entry was posted on Monday, October 24th, 2011 at 10:40 am and is filed under Emergencies, International. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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