The Turkey and Syrian earthquake death toll continues to rise, totaling more than 50,000 as of Feb. 27. Globally, people are suffering from this natural disaster, including students at the University of Denver who have close ties to those in the affected areas. From approximately 6,000 miles away, students are mourning this historical event and doing everything they can to raise money for families and friends living in the affected regions.
A 7.8 magnitude earthquake, now named the Kahramanmaras earthquake, struck on the border of Turkey and Syria in the early morning of Feb. 6, leaving hundreds of thousands of Syrian and Turkish people dead, injured, homeless and traumatized. Since then, numerous large-magnitude aftershocks have continued to set assistance efforts back, with thousands of smaller shocks occurring daily.
Ada Solaker, a first-year student-athlete at the University of Denver from Istanbul, Turkey, lost an aunt who was trapped under rubble for more than 80 hours. She was one of more than 44,000 Turkish individuals that lost their lives in the quake.
When the earthquake struck, it was during the night of Feb. 5 in the U.S., and Solaker was in her dorm room. “No one in Turkey was awake since it was 4 a.m. there,” she said. “I remember texting my family members and my aunts that were living there to know that they were safe and healthy.”
Sevde Acabay-Oguc is a graduate student at the University of Denver’s Korbel School of International Studies and is originally from Konya, Turkey. Though Konya was not in the earthquake’s zone of impact, she has experience dealing with the history of earthquakes in Turkey.
“In Turkey, you would always have this kind of news but it would always be less than five [magnitude] and that means your home got a little bit shaken and like you are fine,” said Acabay-Oguc. “So when you first hear this kind of stuff you don’t assume the worst.”
“But then I started like getting lots of notifications from my phone and I’m like ‘what’s happening?’ That was really shocking,” continued Acabay-Oguc. “You don’t really think of it much at first but then when you started to get all these notifications people started asking, ‘are you okay?’”
Acabay-Oguc quickly realized it was a much bigger problem and described the night the earthquake struck as “a nightmare,” due to people sending videos stuck under the rubble, begging for help.
“I have a friend in my nonprofit organization. He is the executive director, he has lost 14 of his family members in the epicenter. So you cannot really take yourself out of the situation,” said Acabay-Oguc.
Acabay-Oguc is the president of the non-profit, Multicultural Mosaic Foundation or Mosaic.
“You cannot just say ‘I am so far away’ but emotionally you are in the situation,” says Acabay-Oguc. “It means you’re not gonna be able to be with your loved ones, you’re not gonna be able to help as much as you want but you still feel the same pain. In that sense it was not easy at all,” she added.
“No matter how much you help by donating you always feel like you could’ve done more when you’re away,” said Solaker, “I try to use my audience on Instagram to inform my followers about the earthquake and show them ways to help my country.”
Acabay-Oguc’s non-profit group, Multicultural Mosaic Foundation, is based out of Aurora, Colorado, and is partnered with Embrace Relief, a New Jersey-based organization that provides aid during humanitarian disasters and strives for research-based, sustainable solutions to problems in places enduring chronic hardship. Between the two organizations, they have raised over $1.2 million in support of the earthquake.
“We [Mosaic] selected five families with two kids. We are going to support them for a year. Because this is not like a one-time situation,” said Acabay-Oguc.
Victims of the earthquake are going to need assistance getting back on their feet, even a year from now because they have to essentially start over with nothing, according to Acabay-Oguc.
“I want to remind my fellow students that $1 is equal to 18.87 in Turkish Liras and even the smallest amount can help. Please switch your daily coffee budget to donate,” said Solaker.
Acabay-Oguc added, “with the currency difference, sending that money can buy five or more t-shirts there for just one you would buy here. That kind of help will help in the long run because they can use that money however they want.”
There are several global fundraisers including Doctors without Borders and Red Cross that people can donate to in order to help both Turkish and Syrian locals, but for students that want to contribute locally, Acabay-Oguc’s non-profit is still accepting donations and monetary donations are greatly appreciated.
