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Earthquake in Turkey and Syria - our actions thanks to you!

Monday 24 April 2023

Caritas Luxembourg has been deeply involved in humanitarian aid in Syria since the beginning of the war in 2011. In the North-West, the EU and Luxembourg supported programme for 34,000 displaced people from the Syrian war was underway, when the earthquake of 6 February changed everything.

Within hours of the disaster, Caritas Luxembourg released funds to help the victims. The presence of Caritas Luxembourg in the region for the past ten years allowed it to react quickly with its local partners and to take care of the victims from the morning of the earthquake. Thousands of blankets from local stocks were distributed to people, as well as hot food and small cooking kits. The weather conditions were freezing

On 11 February, François Large, programme coordinator at Caritas Luxembourg, was at the Turkish-Syrian border to support the partners on the field and to reinforce the involvement of Caritas Luxembourg in supporting the survivors with food assistance and the installation of shelters and tents. Earthworks with gravel to set up tented camps were necessary. This proved useful during the floods of 18 March which destroyed informal camps of displaced people elsewhere.

The earthquakes in Syria and Turkey killed over 50,000 people. Treating the many injured, searching for the missing and helping hundreds of thousands of homeless people was a race against time as roads and basic infrastructure were destroyed. The cold, snow and then torrential rains, the many tremors, the loss of loved ones and bereavement have affected the resilience of many to survive. The survivors are traumatised.

It will take time for them to overcome the consequences of those few seconds of earthquake during which they lost everything: loved ones, a home and all that was inside, memories, in short, a whole life... We will have to stay with them as long as necessary to help them rebuild and reconstruct," stresses François Large.

Two months after the earthquake, Caritas Luxembourg and its partners are still active in helping people who are facing many difficulties in their daily lives after the deadly earthquake.

Between May 2022 and January 2023, with funding from the European Commission, the Government of Luxembourg and private donors, 38,000 people in north-western Syria had already been helped with shelter, pre-paid electronic food vouchers or cash, sewage works and the preparation of camps for people displaced by the war. This aid continued in February-April to support 5,500 earthquake survivors with tents and cash for their basic needs.

THESE ACTIONS ARE MADE POSSIBLE THANKS TO THE SUPPORT OF INSTITUTIONAL AND INDIVIDUAL DONORS: THANK YOU!

 

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