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Lara Adejoro
The Islamic Medical Association of North America has donated $50,000 for immediate humanitarian aid and medical support to Turkey.
The support is coming after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake devastated Turkey and Syria, leaving over an estimated 5,000 people dead and thousands injured early Monday. Thousands of buildings have also been reduced to rubble.
The earthquake is said to be the largest and deadliest one to hit Turkey in decades.
The IMANA, in a tweet on its handle @imanacares said a rapid response team is en route to Turkey, and the Turkish-Syrian border affected areas to asses and oversee IMANA’s response in the area.
“A 7.8 magnitude earthquake has devastated Turkey and Syria, leaving over 2,700 dead and thousands injured. IMANA has taken swift action by releasing $50,000 for immediate humanitarian aid and medical support.
“A rapid response team is en route to Turkey, and Turkish-Syrian border affected areas to asses and oversee IMANA’s response in the area. Follow along with us to keep updated on ways to support the affected communities as their needs become clearer,” the tweet read.
Meanwhile, the World Health Organisation Senior Emergency Officer, Adelheid Marschang, has said about 23 million people, including 1.4 million children, were likely to be exposed in both countries following the earthquake and its aftershocks that reduced thousands of buildings to rubble.
Marschang said Turkey had a strong capacity to respond to the crisis bit most of the supplies are likely to be passed across Syria which was already battling long time humanitarian crisis including civil war and cholera outbreak, the Guardian UK stated.
She said, “This is a crisis on top of multiple crises in the affected region. All over Syria, the needs are the highest after nearly 12 years of protracted, complex crisis, while humanitarian funding continues to decline.”
WHO said it was dispatching emergency supplies, including trauma and emergency surgical kits, and activating a network of emergency medical teams.
Also, the WHO Director General, Tedros Ghebreyesus stated, “It’s now a race against time. Every minute, every hour that passes, the chances of finding survivors alive diminishes.”
He said the WHO was especially concerned about areas of Turkey and Syria from where no information had emerged since Monday’s earthquake. “Damage mapping is one way to understand where we need to focus our attention,” he said.
So far, two children have been rescued from the ruins of a collapsed building. One of the young boys was saved by emergency workers in Syria after being trapped for more than 20 hours.
Both children were displaced due to the Syrian civil war.
Both children were displaced due to the Syrian civil war.
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