Please Help Earthquake Survivors My Family

Thank you for taking the time to visit this page. If you haven't heard already, massive earthquakes hit Turkey on February 6th and hundreds of thousands people lost loved ones, relatives, friends, homes, cars, and more.

This is Suleyman Olgar, an Florida State University graduate, adjunct faculty at FSU and working at the Florida Department of Education in Tallahassee, Florida.

I am reaching out to ask for your prayers and donations to support my own family members and relatives that lost everything in the massive 7.8 and 7.6 magnitude Earthquakes that devastated 11 cities in Turkey and also northern Syria. Unfortunately, the earthquake demolished my birthplace and hometown Antakya (Antioch) where almost all city is flattened. My brother’s family, uncles and aunts, and most cousins and their children thankfully survived but lost everything they worked for in this massive tragedy.

My other brothers and mom traveled from Mersin to Antakya to help with the rescue and we are greatly thankful to God that even working with bare hands, they were able to rescue my 2 and 4 years old nieces, their mom and 2 of their cousins from the collapsed 8-story building in to rubbles (seen in the picture). Sadly, not all relatives were lucky, by the 9th day, the rescue teams were able to pull bodies of remaining family members from the rubbles. Unfortunately, We lost total of 22 family members (cousins and their families which few were complete family) in multiple collapsed tall buildings.

By the 6th day, we have transported most surviving cousins and their families, aunts and uncles to my brothers and sisters and some cousins and friends' homes in Mersin. We need your help with their basic needs, food, water, clothing, housing etc. in the aftermath of the massive earthquakes. The current death toll is over 40,000 in Turkey alone, however, it's going to continue to rise. Sadly though, there are still over hundreds of thousands buried in rubbles and likely over 100,000 in my hometown Antioch alone which is way bigger destruction than Turkiye can handle alone! Your donation will go to help us getting couple flats ready for my aunts and their children’s families to live in and to help my brother who lost his house and car and also provide support for my other cousins, aunts (mom sisters) and uncles. 

Any amount will help!

I sincerely thank you for your help in getting my close families back to over their feet and to start building theirs and their children's lives.

I will continue to post updates. Please come back to see updates and progress.

Süleyman Olgar