Charities launch emergency appeals after Turkey and Syria earthquakes

Humanitarian aid charities have launched emergency fundraising appeals to support people in Turkey and Syria affected by earthquakes that occurred yesterday.

Oxfam, Christian Aid, ActionAid and Islamic Relief are among the charities that have launched emergency appeals to support the relief effort. At the time of writing, Sky News has reported 5,000 have died and more than 15,000 sustained injuries as a result of the earthquake, which occurred in Turkey near the Syrian border. It has since suffered another earthquake and aftershocks.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) expects the number of fatalities to rise to as much as 20,000 as more information is collected. With the first earthquake having a magnitude of 7.8, this is the largest earthquake in Turkey since 1938, says Oxfam, who have launched an emergency appeal to support those affected by the disaster.

Meryem Aslan, country director at Oxfam, said: “The scale of destruction is vast. Following two big earthquakes and over 60 aftershocks, people are still in shock and fear, they don’t even have time to mourn the lost ones.” She said Oxfam is urgently gathering information to assess the scale of devastation so it can identify what people affected need most. Read more at the Civil Society News.