From the Team Expansion worker overseeing relief efforts in Turkey/Syria:
In Malatya, where we have been distributing food packages package details for about four weeks, we have expanded the soup service that we started in front of the hospital and now we are distributing three hot meals a day, including breakfast and lunch.
Because of strong winds and storms, many tents where our team members were staying were destroyed and damaged. The local people living in tents are in a state of panic. Storms are expected to continue. The tent we used as a warehouse was also destroyed. Because we distribute food, we will need a big tent.
There are still unreached villages, and we continue to bring aid to them. When we were serving in an almost-destroyed village in Adıyaman, we were talking to a family and the mother shared her heartache. She told us that she had six children, but that four of them died within a minute and that she has only two children left alive. Our eyes filled with tears and we became silent and started praying with this family.
There is a serious water shortage in Hatay. Water aid, which was plentiful in the first weeks, has now diminished and people cannot use tap water for drinking because it is mixed with sewage. We started using water filtration systems called Sawyer in Hatay and we are distributing drinking water with this purification system, especially to villages.
This week we had a time of worship with music in the center of Adıyaman with people we have developed a relationship with over time. One of our team members played the guitar, one played the lyre, and another person from within the community played the sax. People who heard the music showed up. They told us that they missed some normalcy and that the music was very nice. For a short time, we forgot about the earthquake and had fun with the rhythm of the music. We praised the Lord with hymns and it was healing for everyone.
We help in the following locations:
- Antakaya
- Malatya
- Adryaman
- Hatay
- Syrian Refugees IDPS
We are currently providing:
- Food packages (25k flour, 10kg rice, 10kg beans, 5kg lentils, 5L oil, 2k sugar, tea, 2 packages of salt 2, 5k pasta, tomato paste cans, and 5kg chickpeas)
- Blankets
- Tents
- Cooking materials to kitchen sites (such as rice, oil, potatoes, onions, bread, beans, lentils, chickpeas, gas for cooking, and disposable plates and boxes).
- Charcoal
Current Urgent Needs
- Food and food supplies (cooking items) for kitchen sites (the supplies for one month to feed 500 people daily costs $3,800)
- Food package for the remote villages and current town and villages (each package $108)
- Water (each ton bottle $120)
- 100 Tents (each $250)
- Clothing and shoes (Male, female and children, per person average $15)
- Blankets, Pillow and sheets ($25)
- Hygiene kits (Each Unit $15.50)
- Installing bakeries for making bread (Each establishment with first month supplies is $8,900)
- Generators (10KW $2,200)
- 10 Water storage unites (Unit cost 3000 L water storage tank $380 with equipment)
Prayer Needs
- Pray for the government to allow NGO and church medical teams to work and set mobile clinics
- Pray for relief from the bad weather
- Ask God to stop the small daily earthquakes
- More workers
- More supplies
- Pray for the people emotional spiritual need (people have lost their hope for the future)
