Observations about the recent earthquakes in Türkiye and Syria: how to help

So, I know that many people who are not in Turkey/Syria might believe that it’s difficult to help those in need; however, there are many ways to help.

1. Perhaps the easiest, most convenient way to help those in need is to spread awareness. Especially if you have a large following on any social media platform, it’s incredibly important to spread awareness from reliable sources in order to ensure the news reach the right people, perhaps celebrities or others who have the means to provide donations or get volunteers. If you don’t have such a large following/if you don’t use social media, spread awareness in person!! If you’re a student, print out posters to hang around the school and have a donation boxes where students can put cash, clothes, blankets etc. (it might be difficult to ship things such as blankets if you’re not in the Middle East or Europe, but collecting cash is always easy.) You can also do this in a workplace, or even in the streets by hanging out posters and writing down a venmo account or a link to a donation campaign by reliable organizations!
2. Donations: This is one of the most efficient ways to help those struggling, because even though spreading awareness is also crucial and valuable, donations are what is needed at this time. However, it’s important that these donations reach the right organizations and are used for the proper means. If you’re keeping up with Turkish news, there are mass amounts of donations being made to all kinds of organizations at the moment, mass amounts of food, clothing and other such needs being shipped out. As great as this is, they have begun to overflow to the point of inefficiency. It’s become hard to ship things, and the lives of those affected by the earthquakes have slowly begun shifting to normal as they are transported to cities that haven’t been affected by the earthquakes and are able to access water, food, electricity etc. (The things they were so desperately in need of previously are now becoming accessible to them). Now, they need more permanent and long-lasting solutions to the things they have lost, such as cell service, shelter, and jobs. So how can you help those in need to reach such things that not many are able to provide?
   • Campaigns: You can send letters to government officials, create campaigns on social media, or through reliable organizations like change.org about there being need for more shelter and cell service and other necessities. The Turkish government so far has aimed to solve this problem by converting universities to online education and using all of the university dorms throughout the country as shelter for those in need. However, this has received a huge backlash as there were many other opportunities, such as hotels or one of the presidents’ homes (that has around 1000 rooms) being converted into shelters instead of disrupting education. Also, it has been announced that all rents, cell service payments, mortgages etc. will be postponed until the end of this year, however, this has once again received backlash because peoples’ entire lives have been destroyed, there is no home to pay the rent of, yet government officials are still worried about the money of it all. It’s absolutely disgusting and stems from greed. So protesting such acts and creating the impression that they are also recognized and criticized in other countries is important. Though it doesn’t seem as though this makes a difference, it truly does.
   • Donations: Once again, donations can be very helpful. I will post a list of reliable organizations to which you can donate at the end of this post.
   • Volunteering/Direct action: If you or anyone you know owns properties such as apartment complexes in Turkey, please consider or ask them to consider converting those places into shelter. Some companies have done this already, and it’s truly inspiring to see people come together like this even when the government doesn’t.
3. Volunteering: I would say volunteering is still important, but there’s less of a need for it now because as I said, the shipping of boxes with clothing, food, water etc. is not very needed anymore as those affected by the earthquakes can access them. However, if you’re in Turkey and you encounter a city hall or municipality building, simply go in and ask whether they need volunteers.

These are the primary ways of help I’ve seen people give. So now onto the sources.

Reliable sources from which you can get information

A short video to provide information: https://www.instagram.com/p/CoZ2wkVKORm/

Unfortunately, many foreign sources which I usually follow for news such as @impact on Instagram has barely touched on this topic, limiting them to a single post whereas they posted about the overturning of Roe V. Wade or the Russia Ukraine war for weeks. Though I appreciate being able to get reliable news and I understand that some news may be more relevant than others, I would have appreciated Middle Eastern countries getting equal recognition so that more help could be raised in the beginning. So I can recommend the Instagram account of Ekrem Imamoglu, the mayor of Istanbul, who also has an account for English posts.

https://www.instagram.com/imamoglu_int/ (his account) and https://www.instagram.com/municipalityist/ (Istanbul’s account- you can also find links to donate through here)

Additionally, to get information about the earthquake, simply write “Turkey earthquake” to Google and reliable news from CNN, BBC or TIME will begin to show up.

Reliable sources to donate to

The celebrities I mentioned in the previous post shared methods to donate:

DONATE VIA BANK TRANSFER:

SWIFT: ISBKTRIS

İş Bankası EUR Account
1021-2150277
IBAN: TR150006400000210212150277

İş Bankası USD Account
1021-2150262
IBAN: TR320006400000210212150262

You can also visit this link to donate: https://ahbap.org/disasters-turkey

You can also visit their instagram account through this link: https://www.instagram.com/p/CoaLpAAg6RS/

Here are donation accounts issued by the Istanbul Municipality:

I believe these two are the most reliable and accessible means through which you can donate, but I will update this post as I learn more.

Thank you for reading so far in this blog post and for being concerned about an issue that doesn’t directly (or perhaps even indirectly) affect you.