The full scope of the devastation caused by the Turkiye-Syria earthquake may not be known for some time but for Londoner Hakan Karatas, the luxury of time was something he did not have.
It was not just because he has family in the region. He says while he’s not a member of any charitable or aid organization, he felt the need to do something to help.
He wasn’t alone.
“I’ve come to realize that all of the Turkish community in London, they’re very considerate,” says Karatas. “We came together and we started to brainstorm about how we can help out, how we can bring our forces together and mobilize our efforts to provide whatever is needed to the people in the region.”
Karatas says that the logistics of organizing a large initiative in the first few days was difficult.
“It was a whole supply-chain problem for us,” says Karatas. “But people came together organically and naturally through WhatsApp and Facebook groups.”
He was just one of the many volunteers who made this possible. The entire operation required people to collect the materials, warehouses to hold them and people to drive the goods to Pearson to await a flight to its final destination in Turkiye.
Hakan Karatas, a Londoner who volunteered his time to help organize donations to Turkiye.
He describes the chaos of those first few days.
“It was a mess, you can imagine that people brought the materials they wanted to very generously donate,” says Karatas. “They didn’t organize them, they just brought them in plastic bags. The goods had to be re-organized so when they’re shipped to Turkiye, it would be easier for the people helping out on the ground to distribute them.”
The entire effort was also incredibly labour intensive and they had to learn hard lessons, fast.
“Somehow, luckily it worked out but we also learned from this experience,” says Karatas. “Hopefully, in the future my wish is that something similar will never happen again. But, in such a scenario, we’ve learned lessons that we should be more organized and more effective.”
Now though, Karatas says they have more than enough goods to ship over to Turkiye. He says that what the people on the ground need more are financial donations.
“It’s also challenging to get the supplies to people in need when it’s excessive,” says Karatas. “They need tents, they need baby food, and they need assistance to help people to rebuild their lives from scratch.”
He urges anyone who wants to help those affected by the Turkiye-Syria earthquake to attend local fundraisers or donate money to a reputable charity they trust.
“There are some certified, reliable organizations we work with,” says Karatas. “Some of them are Canadian, some of them are in Turkiye. They all work together and collaborate.”
The Canadian government matched $10 million worth of donations to the Red Cross as of February 13th, but is still accepting support.
