Boxes piled up on the entrance of Athens’ municipality constructing in Greece as folks from all backgrounds donated gadgets for the victims of final month’s devastating earthquakes in Türkiye and Syria.
The neatly organized gadgets included garments for males, girls, and kids, in addition to drugs, meals, and different important items.
The response was overwhelming not simply in Athens however from a number of different municipalities throughout Greece.
“For five consecutive days, we collected essential goods from all across Athens,” Katerina Gagaki, the deputy mayor of social solidarity and civil society at Athens municipality, informed Anadolu.
There had been 27 spots the place residents from throughout Athens — the capital and dominant metropolis of the Attica area — might drop off important items, drugs, meals, blankets, and different gadgets, Gagaki stated.
“The truth is what we experienced from the day that this action started till the last day was overwhelming and magical,” she added.
Apart from residents who collected donated gadgets and introduced them, many firms had been motivated by the trigger, she stated.
Fifty vans from all 27 assortment spots left full of the donations to succeed in the municipality’s essential storage amenities in order that they could possibly be packed and despatched to quake-stricken Türkiye and Syria.
Gagaki stated an identical motion will happen within the close to future.
In Türkiye alone, greater than 46,100 folks died within the magnitude 7.7 and seven.6 earthquakes on Feb. 6 centered in Kahramanmaras province which affected greater than 13 million folks throughout 11 provinces.
“If we all realized that this misfortune that happened right next to us, didn’t happen to our country only by total coincidence, we would be even more willing to help,” Cybel Laskari, the founder and head of the Cultural and Animal Welfare Association of Kifissia AGAPI, informed Anadolu.
Laskari described how the photographs following the lethal earthquakes in Türkiye and Syria shocked her.
“When we learned about the terrible earthquake in our neighboring Türkiye, we looked in awe at the heartbreaking images of despair and destruction that were broadcasted to us on television,” she stated.
Despite her affiliation being primarily animal welfare associated, this didn’t cease them from taking motion to assist folks affected by the quakes.
Anyone who respects and loves animals respects and loves life as nicely, she stated, including that this small human chain that’s created is only a small miracle to assist heal the injuries of the victims.
These efforts replicate “our main principle that every single act, no matter how small, in the end makes a difference,” she added.
The affiliation together with many volunteers who joined the nice chain of help together with all those that rushed to assist as a lot as they might collected garments, blankets, medicines, hygiene gadgets, and meals for folks and animals.
“Pain and the need for help is experienced in the same way for everyone,” she stated, including that this motion was not performed to take credit score however to encourage others to do the identical.
“Today it’s them, tomorrow it could be us,” she stated.
Greece is accustomed to the results of earthquakes, and for many individuals, the photographs from Türkiye and Syria convey again reminiscences of the devastating influence of the lethal 5.9 magnitude earthquake in Athens in 1999, the place 143 folks misplaced their lives and lots of had been injured.
Thirteen hours after the quake, a staff of 20 rescuers from Türkiye arrived in Athens.
“In these kinds of tragedies, there are no such things as race or color or political ideologies. There is only pain, and we should all participate” in aid efforts, Laskari stated.
The Church of the Holy Trinity in Athens couldn’t keep away from collaborating on this act of kindness and solidarity, Father Marcus informed Anadolu.
“I spent hours crying watching on TV those images — children crying after losing their families and parents looking in the rubble to find their children.”
“What kind of an agony these people are living,” he stated.
Father Marcus managed to gather 50 bins of important items that might be despatched to the Red Cross after which transported to the quake-hit nations.
He defined how, for 3 consecutive Sundays, he devoted prayers to the victims and people who had been nonetheless trying to find their family members.
“It is the least I could do. We are all one. We are humans, and we need to have solidarity and empathy between us,” he stated.
Source: www.anews.com.tr
