Turkey & Syria Earthquakes Appeal

Donation options can be seen here

On Monday 6 February 2023 an earthquake of 7.8 magnitude, closely followed by another of 7.5, struck South Eastern Turkey near the border with Syria causing massive damage and loss of life in both countries. Thousands are reported dead and many more are injured, missing or homeless. The World Health Organisation (WHO) states that as many as 23 million people may be affected. Turkey has declared a three-month state of emergency. Whilst Syria is initially reporting slightly less casualties, historic and ongoing conflicts there will exacerbate the problems and their need will be just as high. Possibly contrary to our conceptions, it is bitterly cold in the area.

Disaster Aid UK & Ireland are joining our Disaster Aid International country partners and launching an appeal to help the people of Turkey and Syria. Members of Disaster Aid International have been in touch with local Rotarians who advise that shelter and warm clothing are among the greatest needs. As Governments and appropriate NGOs respond to the massive and complex disaster phase, we will follow up quickly to assist the survivors with whatever help is appropriate in the next phase.

This is a disaster of almost unprecedented scale across different nations but with your help and generosity allied to our expertise in shelter, safe water and other solutions we can give ‘a hand up, not a handout’ to people who desperately need our help and humanity. Please help us help the people of Turkey and Syria.

.

The Flooding in Pakistan – Appeal still open

As Pakistan marks the 75^th anniversary of the partition from India and the birth of the nation, it has been struck by some of the worst flooding in its recent history caused by torrential monsoon rains.

There has been five times as much rainfall compared to the 30-year average in the worst hit areas. Villages and huge areas of agricultural land have been cut off. According to the Government of Pakistan: a third of the country, equivalent to an area the size of Great Britain, is under water.

1 million homes have been destroyed or badly damaged.
1200 people have lost their lives
13,000 people have been injured
470,000 people have been displaced and are living in camps

Water borne diseases and access to safe clean drinking water are a huge issue.

Infrastructure including roads and bridges have been badly damaged making transport and relief efforts difficult.

Disaster Aid UK & Ireland are launching an appeal to help. We are joining Disaster Aid country partners, NGOs and other relief organisations and are actively reaching out to communicate with local Rotarians and other organisations to establish exactly what resources are needed.

With your help and generosity allied to our expertise in shelter and safe water solutions we can give ‘a hand up, not a handout’ to people who desperately need our help and humanity.

Disaster Aid UK & Ireland

Disaster Aid UK & Ireland is one of the founding partners of Disaster Aid International (DAI). DAI is an international organisation, involving Rotary Clubs around the world, with the mission to:

Respond to disasters with the supply of humanitarian aid to the affected communities and/or individuals.
Work in partnership on humanitarian projects funded by other organisations including Rotary clubs and Rotary districts.

In contrast to many other disaster-response groups, our aim is also to provide an infrastructure that allows affected communities to regain their normal lives.

If your organisation, club or group would like a speaker for your meetings, we would be very happy speak about Disaster Aid UK & Ireland, and answer any questions they might have.

Please contact us with suggested details of the time and date of the meeting. Email: admin@disasteraiduk.org

View video for the role of DARTS

Deployments

With the advent of Covid-19, our usual method for deployments has been severely disrupted, in that we have been unable to utilise our fully trained Disaster Aid Response Team volunteers (DARTS). However, in the ordinary course of events and hopefully in the near future we would send DARTS to the affected country in order to:

Conduct an assessment of the disaster and local needs;
Coordinate with relevant governments, aid agencies and the affected communities to ensure that aid is deployed where most effective;
Manage the effective distribution of equipment, tents etc. to the sites of deployment;
Train members of the local community so that they can be involved in the distribution and deployment of the equipment, tents etc.;
Work to ensure that deployments are designed to support longer term sustainability;
Monitor and evaluate our deployments to ensure that both the products we are deploying as well as the means of distribution are relevant, effective and reach out to the most vulnerable.

MORE INFORMATION