Victims of a deadly earthquake have “lost everything” according to relatives who have been collecting tons of aid to send to the disaster zone.
Multi-national search teams have been sifting the rubble of amid towns and cities in Turkey and northern Syria, in what is increasingly becoming an operation to recover bodies from beneath piles of rubble which used to be people’s homes.
The magnitude 7.8 and 7.5 quakes struck nine hours apart in south-eastern Turkey and Syria on February 6.
At least 33,185 people were killed, with the death toll expected to rise considerably as search teams find more bodies, and towns and cities inhabited by millions reduced to fragments of concrete and twisted metal.
But a humanitarian disaster is underway with up to 17 million affected, many without proper shelter, heat, electricity of access to running water.
At community group the Bearded Broz’s depot in Smethwick, West Midlands, donations have been pouring in after it launched a collection appeal.
The supplies of baby clothes, food including rice, breakfast cereals, and tins, medical supplies, clothing and blankets, are all being bagged up by some of its 750 volunteers, before onward transport for further sorting and then shipping to the disaster zones.
Throughout Monday, a steady stream of people were arriving, some bringing a bag or two of clothing, others arriving with vans full, including Tividale Community Foodbank whose volunteers have pulled together up to four tons of aid.
Among others collecting have been Melodie Aslan, 27, and her father 50-year-old Michael Denigin, from Dudley Wood, who had packed his long-wheelbase van full of toys, baby clothes, baby formula, dummies, blankets and winter clothing, for unloading at Smethwick.
For them the disaster is personal as Mrs Aslan’s husband Mert Aslan is originally from the Turkish city of Incirlik, the home of a United States Air Force base, but their relatives live in Adana, right on the outskirts of the disaster zone.
She added that only a short drive away, many buildings have been reduced to piles of rubble.
Mr Denigin said: “It’s affected everybody in Turkey, but more so in the towns and cities.
“There’s children there without families, they’ve got no clothing, they’ve got no cover.
...that could be your child, it could be anybody's baby, and it is devastating.— Imran Hameed, of Bearded Broz
“We’re just encouraging everybody to do what they can, to send help.”
Mrs Aslan added: “They’ve lost everything, they’ve literally got nothing, everything is just crushed in the buildings.
“So they need as much help as they can, that’s what we’ve been doing.”
She and her partner had been visiting the family in southern Turkey, fortunately coming back just five days before the quakes hit.
Mrs Aslan said: “They’re living in tents, they’ve put wooden slats up with tarpaulin across, they’re burning anything they can find to keep warm.
“They’ve got blankets, to keep warm, because they can’t put an open fire inside the tents either, because of the risk of burning down the tents.”
“It’s just awful there, there’s kids in the tents, it must be affecting them so badly, to be staying in the tents, nothing to do.
“I know there’s a lot of kids that have died, have got no family now, so I do thank my lucky stars my family is OK, because there’s a lot that aren’t.
“There’s apartment buildings, big buildings that have come down.
Breaking down in tears, she said: “It is awful, it is sad, I’ve just done this to help, as much as I can.”
Mr Denigin said their home had been turned “into a little depot”, with Mrs Aslan thanking family, friends and “people we don’t even know” for donating.
Imran Hameed, who runs Bearded Broz, said they had been receiving “everything but the kitchen sink” in terms of donations.
“What we’re asking for is clean used and new clothing or food donations, something immediate, that somebody can open and eat,” he added.
Mr Hameed, whose charity is no stranger to helping with relief efforts having collected tons of donations during the war in Ukraine, said he had been particularly moved by news images of babies, already orphaned, being rescued from the quake’s rubble.
He said: “When it first happened, I remember me and the wife were just crying, all night long.
“We were looking at these kids coming out, thinking ‘no way’ and you put yourself into that predicament.
“You think ‘that’s a little kid, I’ve got a little kid’ that could be your child, it could be anybody’s baby, and it is devastating.
“You lose a child, it’s going to break you so my heart went out to these people straight away.
“The community reacted in such a manner that I reckon before we’re done, over four days, I reckon we’ve got about 150 tons of aid going out there.”
For more information on donating visit the Disasters Emergency Committee at www.dec.org.uk
