Seychellois urged to show compassion towards Turkish people |16 February 2023
Parents, teachers and children from International School Seychelles came together to send a nice package to the victims.
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The death toll from the Turkey-Syria earthquakes has crossed 41,000. According to the latest reports (yesterday) Turkish authorities say 35,418 people have been killed in the country. The Syrian government and the UN say more than 5,800 people died in Syria.
The country needs help and help is coming from different parts of the world. Through the honorary consul general for the Republic of Turkey in Seychelles, Raja Ramani, the Turkish government asked for human power. “The situation is getting worse as the days go by. People are being affected and thousands of people are still missing. When this kind of disaster happens, it takes some time to get the relevant authorities to come together and get the data correct. Personally it is very sad for me to see children who have become orphaned overnight. My drive was to initially mobilise manpower – resources in terms of medical and rescue effort, which was a request from my embassy in East Africa. Unfortunately, we do not have these capacities right now as we also depend on other countries to function in the medical field.”
In view of this situation, to assist the Turkish people, Mr Ramani made an appeal to the Seychellois for help as the weather is cold and many people do not have the appropriate clothing or shoes to wear.
“Some jumped out of their windows or house and they do not have anything. I have seen pictures of old people, children, adults walking barefoot in very cold weather. If the earthquake did not kill them, the weather is not helping.”
One of the appeals is to move on with helping them with shoes, boots, clothing, jackets as they need them now. Food items are not recommended but baby milk/powder are most welcome. “We have received some brand-new jackets and shoes and this shows that Seychellois as a community has a very big heart. The only thing that you need to do is to ask them to help! I believe that we will be able to mobilise up to 25 tonnes of materials and Turkish air cargo has officially announced that it will assist in airfreighting the materials free of cost to the disaster zone in Turkey. Whatever you feel like giving, I think will alleviate the situation on the ground.”
Mr Ramani has been officially appointed as honorary consul general for the Republic of Turkey since the last two years but has been assisting the Republic of Turkey.
For delivery, there are three locations: 1) Grocers at Ex-Siba – FSA; 2) the Samsung shop at Ile du Port and the third location is at Arc distribution opposite SIT at Providence.
There might be a fourth place in the west side to facilitate the delivery. The honorary consul said that all materials will be shipped latest in the next three weeks. People are coming forward with donations and schools are also participating in the campaign.
For people who want to donate they can and the details are in the accompanying photo.
About the earthquake
On February 6, 2023, a catastrophic and destructive 7.8 earthquake struck southern and central Turkey, as well as northern and western Syria. It occurred 34 km (21 mi) west of the city of Gaziantep at 04:17 AM TRT (01:17 UTC), with a Mercalli intensity of XI (Extreme). A Mw 7.7 earthquake occurred nine hours later,[4] centered 95 km (59 mi) to the north–northeast in Kahramanmaraş Province. There was widespread damage and tens of thousands of fatalities.
The mainshock is the strongest earthquake in Turkey since the 1939 Erzincan earthquake, of the same magnitude, together with which it is the second strongest in the history of the country after the 1668 North Anatolia earthquake. The earthquake is the deadliest in Turkey since the 1268 Cilicia earthquake, and in Syria since the 1822 Aleppo earthquake.
Vidya Gappy
Photos Joena Meme/contributed
