Turks in Kitchener rally together to fundraise, support and inform after deadly earthquake
Community members organizing ways to send resources, funds
Waterloo region's Turkish community is feeling the devastation back home, as search and rescue teams continue to sift through the wreckage from this week's earthquake.
Thousands of people are dead and many more injured after the 7.8-magnitude earthquake rocked southeastern Turkey and neighbouring northern Syria.
Ugur Akdogan lived half of his life in Turkey before immigrating to Kitchener, Ont.
He said his family back home is safe because they live outside of the area affected by the earthquake — but others were not so lucky.
"One of my friends was saying that his family in Turkey, he couldn't get any response to his calls because they are in one of the cities that got affected," he said. "Their building was demolished but they are safe. Some cities are simply completely demolished. Buildings are destroyed. Streets are clogged."
He said he worries for the survivors of the earthquake.
"Even though they survived, the cold may affect them. It's difficult. There's people that are outside when it's cold and they don't know what to do," he said, his voice shaking with emotion. "So it's affecting them. It's affecting them too much."
Can Gursoz, of Kitchener, is vice president of the Turkish Culture and Folklore Society of Canada.
He'd already heard from many people who were impacted by midday Monday.
"Of course we have a lot of people living here who have lots of families or friends over there. I used to live in that area of southern Turkey for two or three years when I was young. So I have lots of friends there. I reached out to them, but I still haven't heard from some of them," said Gursoz.
Gursoz said survivors of the earthquake now face finding a way to survive the cold.
"You have to stay outside and it's cold," he said. "We would like to see Canadian emergency teams and materials delivered as fast as possible to this area."
Sima Acan, president of the Federation of Canadian Turkish Associations, was in Istanbul when the earthquake hit Turkey.
She said although the city of Istanbul has remained untouched by the natural disaster, the feeling of devastation has rippled across the country.
"People are taking flights and buses going there to volunteer during the rescue," she said. "Buildings are collapsing, still collapsing. Rescuers are being very cautious and trying to keep people safe."
Impact on Syrian community
According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), southeastern Turkey is home to over 300,000 Syrian refugees escaping civil unrest in their country.
They've been left particularly vulnerable after the earthquake this week, said Rana Mohammed, chair of the Shamrose Organization, a non-profit focused on supporting the Syrian and Arabic speaking communities living in Waterloo region.
She said many people have been worried sick, frantically trying to get ahold of loved ones.
"Many people from this community have not slept for two nights, trying to locate their loved ones back home. Until now, there are people who still don't know where their loved ones are or what happened to them."
She said many members of the local Syrian community has been trying to connect with family through social media — only to find out that the internet and landline connections were no longer working.
"We were watching what's posted on the news, on social media, to see what areas are affected or not. Some of them saw their families or the buildings their families lived in destroyed in front of their eyes, on the screen — without being able to know what's happened to their families."
Fundraising efforts
Gursoz said he has been on the phone with various local associations to figure out how they can help.
"We're trying to arrange everything, to be well organized, to inform people, to support people."
Gursoz said Waterloo region is home to a large Turkish community and said anyone looking to help should keep an eye on the social media pages of local Turkish associations as they post callouts for new fundraisers.
Acan said there are multiple drop off locations across the country for winter clothing, tents, sleeping bags and blankets, with the nearest one located in Toronto.
"We probably haven't slept for at least 19 to 20 hours between Turkey and Canada, trying to get these [fundraisers] organized. We're also in touch with Red Cross, Global Affairs, some Canadian government authorities, the Turkish embassy and our consulate in Canada."
The initial earthquake in the southern part of Turkey was recorded at about 8:30 p.m. ET on Sunday.
A 7.8 magnitude earthquake with a depth of 18 kilometres was recorded by The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), near Gaziantep, a major city and provincial capital in Turkey.
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