‘Now is my time to repay’: Int’l students join post-quake relief efforts

Syafiq Mardi, 29, has simply completed his assembly with associates in Singapore on a sunny Sunday.

The group determined to finalise a goal of meals packets to be shipped to Türkiye, as Ramadan, a holy month for Muslims, is simply weeks away.

“But this is short term and in the coming days, we are working on sustainable donations to be part of rebuilding Türkiye,” Mardi advised Anadolu Agency (AA) from Singapore.

A graduate of Cukurova University within the southern Adana province, Mardi first landed in Türkiye again in 2013 for research.

After finding out Islamic theology, arts and historical past, he graduated final yr beneath Türkiye Scholarships, a government-funded larger schooling scholarship programme run by Türkiye’s Presidency of Turks Abroad and Related Communities (YTB).

Back residence, Mardi is concerned in volunteer work to ship reduction, in money and type, for earthquake-hit folks in Türkiye.

As a part of Be Kind Project, a neighborhood Singaporean organisation, “we collected more than $20,000 in just one week besides other necessary items including food, clothes,” Mardi mentioned.

“Now we are working on a long-time project like in education and social building activities,” he mentioned, including: “Now is my time to repay kindness of Türkiye. It is in a sense of gratitude to pay back to Turkish society.”

Türkiye gives mandatory funding, facility for keep and different actions to worldwide college students for research starting from highschool to post-doctoral levels.

Many of those worldwide college students are funded by the YTB programme. Currently, there are greater than 170,000 worldwide college students pursuing numerous levels within the nation.

Soon after the 2 highly effective earthquakes struck southern Türkiye on February 6, many worldwide college students jumped into search, rescue and reduction operations.

The dying toll from the huge tremors has climbed to 44,374, in response to the newest official figures. Thousands of others have been injured.

Türkiye’s Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) mentioned the quakes, centred in Kahramanmaras province, have been adopted by over 10,200 aftershocks to date.

The magnitude 7.7 and seven.6 quakes struck 10 different southern and southeastern provinces together with Hatay, Gaziantep, Adiyaman, Malatya, Adana, Diyarbakir, Kilis, Osmaniye, Sanliurfa, and Elazig. Some 13.5 million folks have been affected by the devastating quakes.

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‘We have to assist one another’

From the Turkish capital Ankara, Sherhan Upahm Abas, 27, joined a bunch to assist folks within the quake-hit area.

A local of Bangsamoro, the southern Muslim-majority autonomous area of the Philippines, Abas, together with a bunch which consisted of scholars from Malaysia, Bangsamoro, Indonesia and a Rohingya, travelled to Hatay, Kahramanmaras and Gaziantep.

“Whenever we are in need, Türkiye is always there for us,” mentioned Abas, who’s finding out for a grasp’s in data system at Ankara’s Gazi University.

“It is not just about religion. We are brothers. We have to help each other,” he harassed, recalling the “sad situation” of the Türkiye quakes.

Abas mentioned: “I don’t think anyone can resist helping these quake-affected people.”

Led by Yilmaz Balcin of the Türkiye-based International Youth Forum, the group distributed blankets, meals parcels, sneakers, photo voltaic panels, and jackets amongst quake-affected folks.

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Psychosocial help

Aung Naing Shwe, 31 and a sufferer of Myanmar’s persecution of Rohingya, has not visited his household since he landed in Türkiye in 2018.

A PhD candidate at Ankara Yildirim Beyazit University, Shwe advised AA that he helped the quakes-affected folks with a give attention to psychosociological wants.

“I visited camps and talked to quake-affected people, who needed psychosocial support,” mentioned Shwe, who has labored for 4 years as a psychological counsellor.

“Türkiye is supporting people everywhere around the world, especially our Rohingya community in every aspect… be it medical or education,” Shwe mentioned, as he recalled help prolonged by the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA), a state-run growth help company, and AFAD to Rohingya communities dwelling in Bangladesh.

“It has been very effective for our people,” he mentioned, including: “Providing education to us is everything for a community like ours.”

Shwe, a YTB scholar, mentioned quake-affected folks want psychosocial help as a result of some misplaced their mother and father, some their houses and properties.

“This is a traumatic event and we need to reduce such kind of trauma from their minds,” he mentioned.

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Solidarity from Kashmir

A well-liked social media influencer, Musaib Afzal, is a contemporary YTB graduate who has returned residence to India-administered Kashmir.

He is busy serving to people and organisations within the Himalayan area which might be delivery reduction to Türkiye.

Recalling an emotional incident from Srinagar, the capital of India-administered Kashmir, Afzal advised Anadolu Agency: “A vendor mentioned he didn’t have sufficient money to present. “This is all I have, the baby caps, please send them soon to Türkiye,” Afzal quoted the seller as saying.

“We people want to be there with Turkish people (in times of need) even with our small contributions,” mentioned Afzal, who has gained hundreds of social media followers for his digital content material spreading consciousness about instructional, cultural and different alternatives supplied in Türkiye.

A graduate of Islamic sciences from Recep Tayyip Erdogan University, Afzal recalled a time he spent volunteering with completely different scholar and civil society organisations in Türkiye’s Black Sea province of Rize.

Working with native civil society organisations and scholar teams helped him perceive Turkish tradition nicely, he acknowledged.

“It helped me develop deep communication with local Turkish people and see their love toward Muslims from other parts of the world.

“They are always there for us, anywhere in the world,” mentioned Afzal, referring to Türkiye’s humanitarian organisations together with the Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH).

In India-administered Kashmir, he guided folks and organisations to contact the Turkish Embassy in New Delhi, India. 

“Lots of people sent support in kind and cash,” he mentioned.

On his digital work, Afzal mentioned: “I can clearly see folks recognising my little efforts on social media the place I’ve turn out to be a bridge to attach individuals who face issues of language obstacles moreover different points.

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Iraqi college students contribute in money and type

Amjad Yasir led a bunch of worldwide college students from Iraq to assist victims of the quakes in Kahramanmaras and Hatay.

“We have founded an all-Iraqi student organisation in Türkiye to assist earthquake-affected people,” Jawdat advised AA.

He mentioned the group of round 50 college students works in coordination with organisations “back home (which) send us material and help us raise funds.”

“We drove to Kahramanmaras and Hatay to hand out humanitarian aid. Iraqi students made a large amount of cash donation to the Turkish Red Crescent as well as to AFAD, and provided aid to more than 1,000 families,” mentioned Yasir, including the group’s humanitarian work was coordinated by Istanbul-based youth board of Union of NGOs of the Islamic World.

The Iraqi group can be procuring round 1,000 tents which shall be distributed to quake-affected folks in Kahramanmaras.

Ayodele Akin-Adamu, a local of Nigeria who research structural engineering at Dokuz Eylul University within the Aegean coastal metropolis of Izmir, joined a bunch of scholars to assist with the packaging and distribution of meals in Kilis.

Besides witnessing the state of affairs on the bottom himself, Ayodele advised Anadolu Agency that his journey to Kilis helped him “understand the impact of the earthquake firsthand.”

Ayodele’s research are supported by the YTB.

“I left Izmir for Kilis because I wanted to help the people which were affected by the earthquake in whatsoever capacity I have,” he advised AA whereas his buddy Rizwan uz Zaman from Kashmir was distributing meals packages among the many quake-hit folks.

The duo has joined the Istanbul-based IHH which runs one of many greatest reduction centres within the province, near the border with Syria.

Ayodele mentioned working with the IHH enabled the worldwide college students to “see how they operate, … prepare food, provide temporary shelter, clothing and other essential items”. 

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Source: TRTWorld and companies