According to officials, a US citizen from Pakistan has anonymously donated $30 million to help those affected by the recent earthquake that killed hundreds of people in Turkey and Syria and severely damaged their infrastructure.
A rare bit of good news has emerged in the midst of the tragedy’s growing death and damage tolls: word of the Pakistani businessman’s goodwill.
Shehbaz Sharif, the prime minister of Pakistan, tweeted on Saturday that he was “deeply moved by the example” set by a fellow countryman who visited the Turkish embassy in Washington, DC, and gave a multimillion-dollar donation to help earthquake victims.
Deeply moved by the example of an anonymous Pakistani who walked into Turkish embassy in the US & donated $30 million for earthquake victims in Türkiye & Syria. These are such glorious acts of philanthropy that enable humanity to triumph over the seemingly insurmountable odds.
— Shehbaz Sharif (@CMShehbaz) February 11, 2023
Shehbaz Sharif’s tweet added, “These are such glorious acts of philanthropy that enable humanity to triumph over the seemingly insurmountable odds.”
Mustafa Tanyeri, the editor-in-chief of the political news website Election Post, tweeted that Murat Mercan, Turkey’s ambassador to Washington, DC, had confirmed the country’s commitment to the earthquake relief effort started in the US.
Donations for Earthquake Victims
The donation was received in addition to requests for $77 million from the UN World Food Program to supply meals to at least 590,000 displaced people in Turkey and 284,000 in Syria.
The program states that approximately 45,000 of those individuals were refugees and another 545,000 were internally displaced.
More than 33,000 individuals had passed away as of Sunday morning following the massive 7.8-magnitude earthquake that rocked areas of Turkey and Syria seven days earlier.
The number of fatalities will almost definitely rise as the likelihood of rescue workers locating survivors decreases over time.
Turkey was home to about 30,000 of the total number of fatalities as of Sunday. In the meantime, a decade-long civil war in Syria’s northwest had frequently forced many residents to flee their homes. This region was thus particularly vulnerable to the earthquake.
Even though the US temporarily relaxed its sanctions on Syria in an effort to speed up the delivery of relief, that particular region has received minimal aid compared to other afflicted areas since it is controlled by rebels rather than the government.
“We have so far failed the people in north-west Syria,” UN aid chief Martin Griffiths tweeted Saturday from that country’s border with Turkey.
The fact that there is just one UN-approved border crossing operating between Turkey and Syria further complicates assistance efforts.
Those who follow events in Turkey and Syria have forced to look to stories of survival for solace from the steadily rising death toll outside of the $30 million donation by the Pakistani billionaire living in the US for the earthquake victims.
One of those tales concentrates on 54-year-old Syrian Malik Milandi, who spent 156 hours amid the earthquake’s debris before being rescued by a group of Chinese and Turkish firemen.
In the meantime, in southern Turkey, over a week after the earthquake, three children—a toddler, a father and his five-year-old daughter, and a 10-year-old girl—were saved from collapsed structures.
To read our blog on “7.8 magnitude Earthquake jolted Turkey and Syria,” click here.
