Relief Distributions Continue
- Our medical team treated more than 8,000 patients from the opening of the Emergency Field Hospital on Feb. 13 through March 31. We thank God for His favor during this time! The Turkish Ministry of Health assumes responsibility for the facility as of April 1.
- The Turkish government reports that roughly 2 million people have fled the earthquake-devastated region. Another 1.5 million remain and are living in temporary accommodations such as tents or cars. Samaritan’s Purse is planning to provide emergency shelter to 7,000 such households, with more than 5,000 assisted so far in cooperation with partners.
- Samaritan’s Purse President Franklin Graham, along with his son, Edward, visited our Emergency Field Hospital on Feb. 18 to encourage patients and our Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART) members.
Samaritan’s Purse has established a 52-bed Emergency Field Hospital in Turkey, accepting dozens of patients within hours of opening Feb. 13. The mobile hospital includes two emergency operating rooms, four intensive care unit beds, and a pharmacy.
About 100 staff have been deployed in Turkey as part of our DART, including 22 Canadians, which includes doctors, nurses, and other medical personnel.
If you are interested in joining our DART roster to be a part of these types of disaster responses, click here to apply.
We’ve also distributed thousands of tents as well as mattresses, food boxes, solar lanterns, and hygiene kits (including soap, shampoo, toothpaste, toilet paper, and more) in partnership with First Hope Association. Through these local Christian partners, teams are also working to distribute 10,000 dignity kits containing feminine hygiene supplies and 10,000 maternity kits with resources for infants. We’re also in the process of installing 120 mobile hygiene containers, each complete with three showers, three toilets, and sinks. Arriving on large trucks and lifted onto level ground by cranes, these facilities will be maintained for up to a year through our partnerships in Turkey.
More than 50,000 people were killed and tens of thousands are injured in Turkey and Syria as homes and other buildings were toppled by massive earthquakes on Feb. 6.
Thousands of the injured have been brought to our field hospital, including Sare*, who injured her leg while jumping out of a window during the earthquake, and including Mustafa* who was pulled from the rubble after eight days of being trapped without food or water.
Samaritan’s Purse airlifted the mobile hospital and dozens of medical personnel to Turkey on Feb. 9 to address the urgent physical needs of families suffering in the wake of this natural disaster. Hospital components were then transported to Antakya in southern Turkey, historically known as Antioch. In this area, where believers were first called Christians.
We need your prayers. Pray for the people of Turkey and pray that Samaritan’s Purse and our team will be able to love them and care for them. Pray that they’ll know there’s a God in Heaven who loves them as well.
—Franklin Graham
*Name changed for security reasons.
