A 7.8-magnitude earthquake struck Turkiye on February 6, killing more than 5,000 people and wounding 32,000. It destroyed 8,000 buildings. It was the most severe earthquake in the region for 80 years.
Tzu Chi immediately set up a "Disaster Response Center" in Istanbul to prepare supplies for rescue operations at any time. As Turkiye is cold, many people in the affected areas rushed out to buy blankets. Meanwhile, in Taiwan, Tzu Chi volunteers prepared eco-blankets in Tzu Chi Neihu Park (慈濟內湖園區); they now await to be packed and sent out. The Tzu Chi Turkey Branch Office is simultaneously preparing "gift cards" to be used at large chain stores in Turkiye. They plan to distribute the cards to the victims for urgent purchases to settle daily needs after the disaster.
Master Cheng Yen, founder of Tzu Chi Foundation, always cares about the victims of disasters. In her talk at the Volunteers Morning Assembly on February 7th, she said that, wherever there is a disaster, the energy of love must be gathered quickly, and human and material resources must be accumulated immediately.
On February 6, an extremely shallow earthquake with a magnitude of 7.8 and a depth of 17.9 kilometers occurred in Kahramanmaras Province in southern Turkiye at 4:17 a.m. It devastated ten provinces of Turkey and one province of Syria.
Since the earthquake occurred at the junction of four fault zones, the damage caused was very serious; as of the evening of February 6, 286 aftershocks had occurred one after the other.
As the number of casualties continued to rise, teachers and students of the El Menahil School (funded by Tzu Chi) in Istanbul volunteered to donate blood and join disaster relief work voluntarily. The affected areas struck by the earthquake are extensive, and it is hard to make contact with them. Tzu Chi will cooperate with the overall plan of the Turkish government to deliver assistance. The Foundation is also proactively contacting the international NGOs that have cooperated with it, such as Doctors of the World (MDM) and the Airlink organization, in order to deliver blankets, living materials, and medicine to the victims as soon as possible.
Further contact information in Turkiye is as below.
Website: https://tzuchi.com.tr/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tzuchivakfi
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/186174151892563
Telephone: +90 534 064 35 54
Source: Tzu Chi Charity Foundation, Feb 7th, 2023.
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