Emergency Response for Izmir Earthquake Survivors

Dear our respected donors,

I am reaching you today to deliver the updates from the ACT ground teams on the aid delivery for Izmir's survivor. 

It was the earthquake with a magnitude of 6.6 (centered on the Aegean Sea at a depth of 16.5 kilometers) rocked Turkey's third largest city with 4.5 million inhabitants. The earthquake that hit the western province of Izmir, Turkey occurred on Friday, October 30 2020 at 14:51 local time. The European-Mediterranean Seismological Center said the quake was centered 13 km northeast of the Greek island of Samos. The quake was felt in provinces as far away as Istanbul, Bodrum, Mugla and Manisa. To date, the quake has killed 119 people and injured more than 1.053. Several buildings collapsed and there were many people waiting to be rescued under the rubble. The inhabitants of Izmir also faced minor tsunami flooding after the sea experienced a rise due to the effects of the strong earthquake.

After the main earthquake occurred, according to a report by the Turkish Disaster and Emergency Management Authority / AFAD about 1,120 aftershocks had hit the Izmir region, 43 of which were above the magnitude 4.0 magnitude.
Izmir is home to 4.5 million people and serves as a gateway to several tourist and holiday resorts. The earthquake originated about 11 miles (17 km) from the province of Izmir and eight miles north of Samos, at a relatively shallow depth of about 10 miles. This earthquake was triggered by the Sisam Fault activity, an active fault with a downward movement mechanism (normal fault) with a fault line length of about 30 km. The Sisam Fault, which is located near Samos Island, "broke" near Menderes Graben, an area with a long history of earthquakes with normal faults. Because the fault mechanism moves down and the hypocenter of the earthquake is very shallow, only about 6 km, this earthquake triggers a tsunami.

Since then the ACT teams keep distribute the aid for the survivors. The basic need such as food package distributed to the survivors of the Izmir earthquake who lived in relocation areas such as homes after having had to live in tents for a few weeks before. This assistance is very well targeted because the beneficiaries are those who lost their property and homes and until now have only relied on the support of the Turkish government and NGOs for rental and food in the relocation area.

The 93 food packages that were distributed targeted 93 beneficiary families in the area around Bornova, Izmir, Turkey with the contents of food packages in the form of sugar, rice, cooking oil, canned food and snacks needed for them to be able to use the assistance for 3 weeks to 1 month.

Fatma, one of the beneficiaries of GlobalGiving's emergency response food package program, told about the traumatic experience faced when the earthquake took place, and was quite surprised by the assistance from outside Turkey, which shows that humanity does not know the boundaries of countries and continents, where donors from America and the distribution team in Turkey from various countries touched her heart. "We are not alone, the world shows that they are with us, hopefully there will be no more natural disasters and may all your families be protected from disasters", Fatma added.

Finally, thank you so much for GlobalGiving donors who always support the needy across the globe. Your geneousity will always remembered by the beneficiaries. Stay safe and healthy!