Supporting earthquake victims is 'issue of humanity,' says British aid group

By Burak Bir

LONDON (AA) - Many humanitarian organizations have launched aid campaigns for quake-hit people regardless of faith, because "it is an issue of humanity," said a UK-based Muslim charity group.

When two powerful earthquakes hit southern Türkiye on Feb. 6, many international rescue and relief groups, as well as dozens of countries, responded to help victims.

Some of them are still on the ground to relieve the suffering of earthquake victims and make their life easier, including the UK-based aid group Islamic Relief that has been working in both Türkiye and Syria with 160 staff.

Islamic Relief is the largest charitable Muslim organization and the only Muslim group of the 15-member Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) in the UK.

In an interview with Anadolu, Zia Salik, Islamic Relief's head of fundraising, talked about the group's efforts through a fundraising campaign both across the UK and on the ground.

He said they have been working in the region with an emergency response since the Syrian crisis started in 2011, especially in northwestern Syria.

Since then, they have been providing shelter, warm materials, blankets, mattresses, as well as education and health support, said Salik, adding that when the earthquakes hit the region, they have completely shifted their work.

"Since the earthquake itself, our entire focus has shifted and has been on the earthquake response both on the Turkish side and on the Syrian side," he noted.

- Efforts continue in coordination with authorities

Salik stressed that as they had already teams and ongoing humanitarian operation in Syria, they were able to respond the disaster immediately, when the earthquakes struck.

"Teams have been heavily involved on the Syrian side with rescue efforts and helping the removal of rubble and debris and helping treat those that have been affected and injured in the process."

The aid group's teams have been mostly responding in a "huge number of ways" in Syria as the need is huge there, underlined Salik.

He went on to say that while they are heavily working on Syria, Islamic Relief is also on the ground in Türkiye, in coordination with Turkish authorities.

"We're adapting to the needs that are constantly changing. And also we're taking advice from the authorities, especially on the Türkiye side. We're in coordination with them."

Touching on fundraising across the UK, he said many communities have taken part in various campaigns to extend helping help to Türkiye and Syria.

"Muslim community has really rallied behind this because it's such a huge disaster."

He stressed that Islamic Relief's global emergencies fund, which enable people to donate anytime, has also enabled them to launch an immediate response.

- 'Everybody feeling pain of our brothers and sisters'

Salik, however, said the Muslim community in the UK is only one part of the responders as many non-Muslim communities have also donated to their fundraising pages.

"They are actually organizing fundraisers themselves even though they're not of the Muslim faith because this is not an issue of Muslims or non Muslims. It's an issue of humanity."

He also noted that the members of the Disasters Emergency Committee all launched an appeal.

As of Feb. 18, the DEC's Türkiye-Syria earthquake appeal has so far raised a staggering amount of £88 million ($105.9 million).

"So you can imagine that across the UK, everybody is feeling the pain of our brothers and sisters in Türkiye and in Syria, and they're all trying their best to respond and to support," he added.

According to Islamic Relief, they have reached over 630,000 people across the quake-hit areas in Türkiye and Syria as of Jan. 19.

More than 41,000 people have been killed and over 108,000 injured in two powerful earthquakes that rocked southern Türkiye on Feb. 6, the latest official figures show. A fresh earthquake of 6.4 in magnitude on Feb. 20 in Samandag, Hatay also killed at least 3 people.

The 7.7 and 7.6 magnitude earthquakes, centered in the Kahramanmaras province, affected more than 13 million people across 11 provinces, including Adana, Adiyaman, Diyarbakir, Gaziantep, Hatay, Kilis, Malatya, Osmaniye, Elazig, and Sanliurfa.

In Syria, at least 5,840 people have been killed, according to compiled official figures.