Earthquake survivors in Turkey and Syria face a 'mind-boggling' disaster. Here's how you can help

Lucas Bozzo was working and living in Gaziantep, Turkey when two massive earthquakes struck the region on Monday. 

The fallout has left many on the ground without proper shelter, adequate food and clean water, Bozzo, who was raised in Toronto, told CBC News. Makeshift tent cities full of people who have been displaced from their homes have formed amid aftershocks and frigid weather. 

"It's difficult to assess what the needs are because they're changing," Bozzo said.

"There's a need for food and water, then blankets, heaters, gas. And it's all dependent on the locale that's under consideration." 

He's appealing to Canadians to do whatever they can to help survivors that are in desperate need of aid.

Officials in Turkey have said that at least 13.5 million people are affected. The quakes have impacted millions more in northwestern Syria. Relief efforts in that region have been complicated by the ongoing civil war.

'Catastrophic scale'

Local organizations like GlobalMedic Disaster Relief in Etobicoke, have spent the week doing everything they can to raise funds and gather essential items to send to affected regions.

"It's mind boggling, the catastrophic scale of this," Rahul Singh, GlobalMedic's executive director, told CBC Toronto.

"And the key is to decentralize and get out there into different areas and provide life sustaining aid like clean drinking water, shelter, food, access to healthcare, all the basics that people need." 

GlobalMedic has a number of field hospitals and shelters set up in Turkey already, Singh said. The organization is making getting clean water to kitchens a priority so they can provide people with safe food.

Singh outlined a number of ways people in Ontario can help their efforts, the first of which is to visit the GlobalMedic website to donate money.

He's also calling on people to volunteer to help put relief packages together and to amplify GlobalMedic's efforts on social media.

Syrian survivors neglected by local government

Marwa Khobeih, executive director for the Syria Canadian Foundation in Mississauga, told CBC Toronto the situation for people in northern Syria is even more dire because they've been abandoned by their government. 

The living conditions in this region were already very poor before the earthquakes due to the Syrian civil war, she said. 

"After the earthquake hit they sadly don't have access to any aid support," Khobieh said. "The White Helmets, who are the Syrian civil defence, they really are in need of equipment, they're in need of diesel to rescue the families and pull them out from under the rubble."

The best way to support those in Syria is to donate directly to local Syrian organizations like The White Helmets or Molham Team, she said.

Archdiocese gathering donations

The Archdiocese of Toronto is also calling for donations to help earthquake survivors in Turkey and Syria. 

Spokesperson Neil MacCarthy told CBC Toronto that donations made to the Archdiocese would go directly to its Catholic partners in the regions.. 

"When we have disaster that strikes in a part of the world, we work with partners, Catholic partners that have a long tradition of working with local communities to assist in rebuilding efforts both in the short term and over the long term," he said. 

MacCarthy stressed that donations would go towards helping anyone in need, regardless of their religious background. 

"It's there to help the people that need it most," he said, adding that donations can be made on the Archidiocese website.

And outside the GTA, Juneyt Yetkiner has partnered with the Turkish Cultureal and Folklore Society of Canada to organize donation campaigns in southwestern Ontario.

Yetkiner, a Turkish-born musician based in Waterloo, Ont., knew he had to act after learning about the destruction in his home country.

"These are condos, big condos with hundreds of people living it. They're all rubble," he told CBC Toronto. "Some cities, you cannot see. The whole city is flat." 

He's set up a central hub for relief efforts across southwestern Ontario. On weekdays donations from all over the region can be brought to the Forest Heights Community Centre in Waterloo. 

Once a week, Yetkiner drives donated items to the Turkish Consulate in Toronto, which are then flown directly to Turkey.

He's also encouraging people to make monetary donations on the Ahbap Association's website.  

As for Bozzo, he recognizes the importance of donations but warns they are only a short-term solution. 

"The underlying cause of the human suffering here … has a lot do with poverty and has a lot to do with material conditions that have enabled the devastation of the earthquake," he said. 

In addition to more immediate support for earthquake survivors, he's calling on the Canadian government to help with more long-term solutions that would help the region deal with similar disasters in the future.

"It's a catastrophe," he said.

"Not only in terms of the human suffering, but also logistically, it's a disaster."