The earthquake that hit Turkey a few days ago has caused angst across the world as thousands of people were left without food and shelter. While travelling to the affected areas and delivering help is difficult at the moment, good Samaritans from Bengaluru have taken up the task of collecting relief material and making arrangements to transport it to Istanbul.
Local volunteer groups have tied up with international organisations to deliver food items, medical equipment, warm clothing, hygiene and sanitary requirements among other things. “Volunteers of our foundation are working on ground there while we are collecting materials from across the country here. Rather than clothing and other things, our focus has been on sending food items which have a longer shelf life as our volunteers there have told us not to send perishable items,” said Siju Thomas Daniel, director and founder, SCEAD Foundation India.
He added that with the help of student volunteers from St Joseph’s University, Mount Carmel College and Jyoti Nivas College, chips and biscuit packets are being collected to send to Turkey. “When we got a call about the earthquake, we set aside our other programmes and our student volunteers came up with this idea. A Customs official is helping us send this to Istanbul and it should reach there in the next three to four days,” Mr. Daniel said.
Puneeth T., a Red Cross volunteer who had worked with the help of his local foundation to supply relief material to those affected during COVID-19, Chennai floods and the Ukraine war, is collecting medical equipment from donors in the city. “As we have been doing this for quite a while, we have tie-ups with multiple international organisations like the British High Council and others. We are collecting emergency medical supplies, temporary hospital set-ups, beds, syringes and anything which might help them and sending it to our Delhi Headquarters from where it will be sent to Turkey,” he said.
The volunteers said that sending relief materials is a way of standing in solidarity with the affected people. “It is not just about the things we send; it is sending love and a message that we stand with them,” Mr. Daniel said. Many student volunteer groups, merchants and traders’ associations and online communities from the city are also putting together relief material for Turkey.
