Turkey and Syria are facing one of the worst earthquakes in the past 150 years. 10 cities, in the Central South part of Turkey have been hit by two back-to-back earthquakes, affecting 23 million people. Both were over 7.5 magnitude and 3 out of these 10 cities do not exist anymore. According to the most updated information, more than 41.000 people have lost their lives, more than 200.000 people were injured and 430.934 people have been evacuated from the region.

Our Turkish community members in Turkey are safe, but many have lost a loved one, family member, friend, or colleagues.

When a crisis affects millions of people, no state or agency can help them fast enough, and every available hand must be brought to bear to help citizens directly. In any disaster, there are many people who need help and many people who want to help. But what usually fails is coordination. This is why the work of Ashoka Fellows in Turkey is essential these days:

Ali Ercan Özgür and Mert Firat, Ashoka Fellows and Co-Founders of Needs Map, are enabling everyone to list their needs such as clothing, food, hygiene goods, baby needs, medication, etc. in a geolocation-maps based, peer-to-peer platform. This online tool permits everyone to be a receiver and a donor and creates a sense of communal solidarity.

On one digital map, Afet Haritası, they are verifying the basic needs of survivors, encouraging people to donate those needs, collecting them from other cities, boxing, labelling, transferring and disseminating them in the earthquake area. This is a daily operation.

On a second digital map, Bir Kira Bir Yuva, they identify the collapsed buildings, gather data, provide housing, and match them with people who open their houses and hotels to host the survivors. This is an ongoing operation, and the system is open to everyone.

Their work is touching thousands of affected people every minute right now. Join us in supporting Needs Map by supporting our crowdfunding campaign.

Thank you for your support.

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Why are we using Produzioni Dal Basso? We are centralising all donations through the Ashoka Italy account, in order to reduce financial costs and ensure that the money is fully dedicated to supporting the efforts on the ground. All donations will be sent to Needs Map.