How to help the earthquake victims directly

Urgent Appeal from the Federation of Democratic Kurdish Society – Australia

paypal.me/heyvasorakurdistane

The death toll of the catastrophic earthquakes across Turkey and Syria have now exceeded 20,000, with many thousands more severely injured. Many thousands more remain buried under rubble and are at imminent risk of death, as rescue teams and locals struggle to contend with snow, rain, and a lack of resources to rescue people and to shelter survivors. South of Turkey, Rojava/North and East Syria, a region already affected by the Turkish state’s ongoing campaigns of aggression and occupation, has also experienced great loss. With hundreds of thousands within Syria recently displaced by Turkish military aggression, this earthquake in the dead of winter will deepen the humanitarian crisis affecting the peoples of the region, including Kurds, Arabs, Christians, and others.

Our sources on the ground, including through the left wing opposition People's Democratic Party in Turkey (the Kurdish led HDP) and the Kurdish Red Crescent (Heyva Sor) are appealing for any and all resources to support their determined relief efforts. It has been well established that support from official Turkish state authorities has been severely lacking, and many of the worst affected regions of the Kurdish populated towns have yet to receive any official assistance. In the absence of reliable support and aid from the Turkish government, we are urgently calling on any and resources as it is direly needed. So far, the most reliable force on the ground conducting rescue efforts and providing shelter and other emergency assistance to survivors is the Kurdish Red Crescent (Heyva Sor).

We urge fellow Australians to heed the call of the Kurdish Red Crescent (Heyva Sor), who operate on the ground across Kurdistan, to donate directly to those affected by this tragedy, and mitigate the risk of these human lives falling victim to the political calculations of the Erdogan regime. paypal.me/heyvasorakurdistane You can find out more about the work that the Kurdish Red Crescent undertake here: https://www.heyvasor.com/en