Help Earthquake Victims in Turkey

Hi, my name is Damla Eytemiz. I was born in Izmir, Turkey and have been living in the US for the last 13 years. On 6 February 2023, a moment magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck southern Turkey near the city of Gaziantep at 04:17 local time and another one at 1:24 pm, at 7.6 magnitude. The earthquake affected Kahramanmaras, Kilis, Diyarbakir, Adana, Osmaniye, Gaziantep, Sanliurfa, Adiyaman, Malatya, Hatay (several cities also felt the earthquake in other parts of Turkey along with other neighboring countries). Although I am thankful to say that I have no family, friends, or relatives (that I know of, as of now) got affected by the earthquake, I feel the tragedy in my heart. This is day one and over 4000 people were found dead. At this point, the rescue teams and all volunteers are helping when they hear a sound. This will continue for 72 hours and they will have to enter with excavators and start pulling the majority of the debris to find the remaining. Unfortunately, the weather has been at freezing levels, making the rescue teams' work a lot more difficult. The tents that they are putting up are freezing, babies are without their parents, and parents are without their babies, waiting to be rescued or waiting to be fed.

Today your $5, $10, $20, $100, $200 can go a long way. There are wonderful organizations that are doing their very best to collect food, tents, clothe, and all other needs etc. Yet within a week, there will be plenty of all these items and very soon more than the actual need.

I will be transferring all the donations to https://ahbap.org/ Ahbap foundations which have been the most amazing to share all the donations and report on where these donations are going.

I appreciate your donation and your time in reading this, following the news, and most importantly checking up on me and my family continuously. Thank you for all the acts of thoughtfulness shown to my beautiful country during this difficult time. I feel overwhelmed by the love and support from the community. There have been so many friends who reached out to ask how they could donate.

If you can't donate, please keep praying.

God bless you all

Damla