- Here is a list of organizations that need support to assist victims of the earthquakes in Turkey and Syria.
- Donating money is the most efficient way to aid survivors.
While people slept, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake rocked and devastated southern Turkey and northwestern Syria on Monday, only to be followed hours later by 7.5 magnitude aftershock.
Thousands are dead and tens of thousands more in desperate need of aid in a region that was already home to millions of people who have been displaced by war.
Dozens of organizations are already providing on-the-ground assistance. While you may be tempted to try and donate goods, what these groups need now is money. Here are a few that you can help:
Syrian American Medical Society
Volunteer medical workers with the Syrian American Medical Society have for years traveled to Syria and its neighboring countries to treat the victims of war. In the immediate aftermath of Monday's dual earthquakes, the group's own medical facilities in Syria — which have frequently been targeted in airstrikes from Russia and its Syrian regime ally — aided more than 850 people.
Turkish Red Crescent
The Turkish Red Crescent, the largest humanitarian organization in Turkey, is deploying staff and mobile kitchen trucks to distribute food to survivors in Gaziantep and elsewhere in the south of the country, as well as provide blankets, tents, and beds, the group said Monday. Staff are also delivering donated blood to local medical facilities.
The White Helmets
For a decade now, volunteer rescue workers have pulled people from buildings in Syria destroyed by Russian and regime airstrikes. Now members of The White Helmets are pulling survivors from the rubble of buildings destroyed by Monday's earthquake in northwest Syria, one of the last pockets of the country controlled by armed opposition groups.
International Rescue Committee
"This earthquake is yet another devastating blow to so many vulnerable populations already struggling after years of conflict," Tanya Evans of the International Rescue Committee said in a statement on Monday. In Syria, hospitals were already grappling with a cholera outbreak and the latest disaster will only increase the needs on the ground. The IRC will continue to help with everything from medical care to trauma counseling.
Molham Team
Many inhabitants of Syria's northwest Idlib province have been displaced multiple times since 2011, when the conflict in Syria began, some living in homes that had been damaged by airstrikes — and which collapsed on Monday. Volunteers with Molham Team, founded by Syrian college students in the wake of the Syrian revolution, are now setting up shelters and distributing food and blankets to those made homeless once again.
Project HOPE
For more than 60 years, Project HOPE has aided victims of natural disasters, working through local humanitarian organizations and medical workers to provide immediate and long-term assistance.
Radih Torbay, the group's president, said Monday that he anticipates a "very arduous and long road to recovery" in both Turkey and Syria. "As temperatures hover near freezing and airport closures and snowstorms delay access," he said, "Project HOPE has deployed an emergency response effort and is working with local and international partners to respond to the immediate needs."
Save the Children
Save the Children, active in both Turkey and northwest Syria, will be distributing blankets and winter clothing in the days ahead, the group said Monday, as well as support winterization efforts for those dwellings that remain standing.
"[I]t's crucial that the international community acts now to provide support to the thousands of people in need," Sasha Ekanayake, the group's director of operations in Turkey, said in a statement.