Turkey-Syria Earthquake: how to offer help from Szeged

The devastating earthquakes on Monday, February 6, left hundreds of thousands of people without a roof in the affected areas of Turkey and Syria. While the death toll is over 37,000 and still rising, national and international search teams are running a last minute race against time to find and rescue as many survivors under the rubble as possible.

Rescuers pulled a man alive out of the rubble on Sunday, six days after the earthquake, however, the chances of finding survivors are dropping quickly.

The scale of the disaster

“We haven’t yet seen the full extent of the damage and of the humanitarian crisis unfolding before our eyes,” United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said on Thursday, according to CNN. Caroline Holt, director of disasters, climate, and crises at the International Federation of the Red Cross (IFRC) said that after some mapping done to estimate the size of the affected area, it turned out to be the same size as France.

WHO estimates suggest that around 23 million people could be impacted by Monday's natural disaster.

The rescue efforts could not reach the desired speed, despite the fact that perhaps the largest rescue team in the world had been assembled with 141,000 people, including 30,000 professionals, because the destruction covered such a large area and affected so many buildings.

- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday.

According to the Turkish news television NTV, the number of buildings registered to have collapsed in the earthquake is 6,444. So far, there is no official estimate of how many people are still trapped under the collapsed buildings.

Rescue teams are dealing with very harsh circumstances, sometimes working for 10+ hours continuously until they can reach the people trapped under the rubble. The earthquakes destroyed almost all the infrastructure in the worst-hit areas, some of the cities cannot be reached on roads at all, and the situation is worsened by rain and winter temperatures reaching even -10 degrees Celsius.

The Turkish Disaster Management Authority (AFAD) announced on Friday that 81,415 victims have been transported to other provinces from the area affected by Monday's earthquake.

According to reports from Turkey, about 80,000 people are in hospital, and more than 1 million are in temporary shelters.

How to offer help from Hungary

As usually is the case with disasters of this scale, both the survivors and the rescue teams need some sort of support - be it financial or material. We'll show you what type of donations are needed this time.

Donating money to national and international aid organizations

The work of national and international aid organizations is crucial in disaster-struck areas. Some of these organizations have their own specialized search, rescue, and emergency teams, others help with providing warm shelter and food for the hundreds of thousands who are displaced, and the biggest organizations can help with all of these tasks.

Circumstances are even worse in northwestern Syria, where the necessary infrastructure to cater for a larger emergency is non-existent due to the civil war, and because of sanctions in place, most international search and rescue teams are restricted from entering the country. This is where emergency medical assistance, provided for example by the Hungarian Charity Service of the Order of Malta, which has been working in the region for over 10 years, becomes indispensable.

Here is a list of some of the biggest Hungarian aid organizations working in the earthquake-hit areas of Turkey and Syria.

Note: Because of the affected area's distance to Hungary, the aid organizations will primarily need financial support this time, as it can be used more quickly and efficiently.

Donating money is possible through a donation line (telephone) and/or online payment and/or bank transfer, see the links below for more info.

Baptista Szeretetszolgálat - Hungarian Baptist Aid

Ételt az Életért - Food for Life Hungary

Katolikus Karitász - Caritas Hungary

Máltai Szeretetszolgálat - Hungarian Charity Service of the Order of Malta

Other organizations are accepting financial donations that will be transferred to local aid organizations in Turkey:

Magyar Ökumenikus Segélyszervezet - Hungarian Interchurch Aid

Magyarországi Muszlimok Egyháza - Organisation of Muslims in Hungary (accepting wire transfer or cash in Budapest, announcement in Hungarian)

Donate necessary items

Many of the earthquake's survivors have lost their homes and all their belongings, as more than 6,000 buildings collapsed in the affected areas. Hundreds of thousands are displaced with minimal, or no belongings because the building they lived in - although still standing - is not safe anymore. At this point, these people are primarily in need of items that help them through the winter.

The Turkish Embassy in Budapest accepts the following items:

• winter clothes (also in kids' sizes): coats, jackets, hats, gloves, boots, etc.

• equipment to be used in the temporary tent camps: sleeping bags, blankets, flashlights, power banks, generators, heaters, stoves, etc.

• sanitary items: cleaning products, diapers, sanitary pads, etc.

• unopened, long-life food items like canned food, and baby food (please take care not to send food containing pork)

• an exhaustive list of medical equipment and medicines

for the full list of items please follow this link.

Donation items can be dropped off at the Turkish Embassy in Budapest, at 123, Andrássy út, on weekdays between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. and Saturdays between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. Follow the Turkish Embassy’s Facebook page for updates.

Donation drop-off points in Szeged

We will feature information about donation drop-off points in Szeged as soon as these will be confirmed.

How to donate responsibly

Always donate what is currently asked for. Aid organizations will update the actual list of items needed in the temporary shelters and camps.

Always donate items in appropriate condition. The things you donate should be faultless and in good condition. Food items have to have a long shelf life and require no - or very little - cooking.

Make sure to donate items and money only to reliable organizations. Always double-check your information sources. When in doubt, choose the biggest international humanitarian aid organizations' local branches.

Featured image only for illustration