Survivors need winter coats, sleeping bags, tents, canned food and power banks for mobile phones. Donations will be flown from Montreal Wednesday night.
Members of Montreal’s Turkish community are scrambling to collect donations for victims of a powerful earthquake that toppled buildings, leaving thousands of people dead or trapped under rubble.
As president of Turquebec, Gokhan Kuriogulu is one of dozens of community members scrambling to collect emergency donations that will be flown to Istanbul on a Turkish Airlines flight from Montreal Wednesday night.
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“People fled their homes at 4 a.m. without shoes or proper clothes,” Kuriogulu said in an interview.
“We need blankets, shoes, socks, clothing, coats, tents and flashlights.”
Kuriogulu and a friend are driving to homes across the West Island Tuesday to pick up donations.
The 7.8-magnitude earthquake killed and injured scores of people in an area of Syria that is home to millions of refugees from the civil war.
At McGill University, members of McGill and Concordia’s Turkish Students Associations are collecting donations that will be flown to Turkey tomorrow night.
Kerem Ozkeseli was studying for an exam in a McGill library late Sunday night when his Twitter feed blew up with dozens of messages from victims trapped under the rubble.
“They were texting their addresses and asking people to send help,” Ozkeseli said.
“We are very far away, but we are trying to do whatever we can to help. I have friends there who can’t reach their families. It’s very frustrating. I feel like I want to be helping in person, but I have to stay here and help.”
Survivors need winter coats, sleeping bags, tents, canned food and power banks for mobile phones, he said.
How to help
Donations can be dropped off at the following locations:
McGill University, 3480 McTavish St., Room 302.
Turquebec West Island office, 61 Grand Blvd., Île-Perrot
Turquebec Montreal office, 3785 Villeray St.
kwilton@postmedia.com
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