Press Centre 2005/01/13: Emergencies and Disasters
It’s good that there are children!
Milliyet Newspaper, 13 January 2005
As Turkey lags behind in worldwide aid to disaster stricken Southeastern Asia, students who lived through the Marmara earthquakes have launched an aid campaign to collect pocket money.
Use this link to donate directly to the UNICEF Asian Disaster Appeal Fund
As the world hurried to provide aid following the earthquake and tsunami disaster in Southern Asia, Turkey, in spite of bitter experience of such disasters, fell short with official and civil aid totalling only 10 million dollars. By starting their own campaign, however, students who lived through the Marmara earthquakes gave a good example.
Children understand earhquakes
Primary school children in the province of Sakarya who had to live in tents and prefabricated houses following the Marmara earthquakes, raised 640 YTL from their daily pocket money for the tsunami-stricken children of Asia.
Merve Kılıç, who goes to Zübeyde Hanım Primary School, delivered the money she collected from her friends to the School Principal Tekin Ateş. Touched by the children’s initiative, Principal Ateş said:
Every child in Adapazarı still remembers that disaster. They experienced the earthquake when they were very young. First they lived in tents and then in prefabricated buildings. They know very well what it is to experience such a catastrophe.
Use this link to donate directly to the Turkish National Committee for UNICEF.
Ateş added that the money raised would be deposited in a special account opened by the Mayor of Sakarya.
Another helping hand came from the Gölyaka District of Düzce where 600 students at Çok Amaçlı High School raised 555 YTL which they then deposited in Ziraat Bank. Gölyaka was badly hit by the Marmara earthquakes and education in the district centre was only able to resume in a prefabricated building donated by international aid organisations.
The Principal at Çok Amaçlı, Aziz Koçer remarked that students, having first hand experience of an earthquake, spared their pocket money because they share the suffering of the tsunami victims.
Kayseri and Iğdır have started aid campigns as well. In a joint press statement with the Melikgazi Municipality Child Council in Kayseri, İrfan Görgülü, Senior Practitioner at the Red Crescent Medical Centre said that the concern and support of children for their peers far away was outstanding.
Dressed as police, municipal guards or in traditional costumes, the children, together with nurses from the Red Crescent Centre, gave flowers to citizens and shopkeepers and asked their support.
For nearly 60 years UNICEF has been the world’s leader for children, working on the ground in 158 countries to help children survive and thrive, from early childhood through adolescence. The world’s largest provider of vaccines for poor countries, UNICEF supports child health and nutrition, quality basic education for all boys and girls, access to clean water and sanitation, and the protection of children from violence, exploitation, and AIDS. UNICEF is funded entirely by the voluntary contributions of governments, businesses, foundations and individuals, and through our National Committees for UNICEF we sell greeting cards and other products that help advance humanity.
If you would like to make a donation to the children and their families affected by the Asian tsunamis, please send your contribution to the Turkish National Committee for UNICEF (payments can be made directly to the National Committee via İş Bankası, Çankaya, Ankara Branch No 4238, Account No 642066) or directly to the UNICEF Disaster in Asia Appeal.
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OTHER PRESS RELEASES ON EMERGENCY AND DISASTER ISSUES
- 14 January 2005: İstanbul -- Tarkan leads the call for aid in a television spot prepared by UNICEF for the Southeast Asia earthquake and tsunami appeal.
- 13 January 2005: As Turkey lags behind in worldwide aid to disaster stricken Southeastern Asia, students who lived through the Marmara earthquakes have launched an aid campaign to collect pocket money. (Milliyet Newspaper)
- 04 January 2005: Two days ahead of a global conference here to coordinate aid for the countries devastated by tsunamis, UNICEF today proposed four fundamental priorities for children that the agency said are essential to the overall success of the relief effort.
- 31 December 2004: The Indian Ocean Disaster -- UNICEF warns that over one million children’s lives are at risk.
- Bingöl, Eastern Turkey, 1st May: in the aftermath of an earthquake measuring 6.4 on the Richter Scale (RS), UNICEF launches a flash appeal for US$450,000 to aid recovery.
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