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HAITI

Millions in Swedish aid headed to quake-hit Haiti

Sweden plans to donate 180 million kronor ($25.6 million) in financial aid to help Haiti recover from last week’s devastating earthquake, the foreign ministry said on Monday.

Millions in Swedish aid headed to quake-hit Haiti

“Sweden’s support for the emergency situation in Haiti now amounts to 180 million kronor. In addition, Sweden will disburse its entire annual contribution of 425 million kronor to the UN Central Emergency Response fund (CERF),” the ministry said in a statement.

The UN said on Friday that it was launching an appeal for $562 million from donors following Tuesday’s 7.0 magnitude quake which devastated the poverty-stricken Caribbean nation of nine million and was the strongest in more than a century.

“Approximately 100 million of the 180 million kronor is new money that is up front. The rest of the sum is money that we had made available in the UN system before the crisis,” a spokesman for International Development Cooperation minister Gunilla Carlsson, Peter Larsson, told AFP.

At least 70,000 bodies have been buried in mass graves and officials fear the final death toll could top 200,000, while 250,000 people were injured and up to 1.5 million were left homeless.

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EARTHQUAKES

Turkish community in Germany gathers to help earthquake victims

The earthquake in Turkey and northern Syria has shaken the whole of Germany - but especially those who have relatives in the disaster area. 

Turkish community in Germany gathers to help earthquake victims

In dozens of cities in Germany, donations are being collected for victims of the massive earthquake, which as of Wednesday afternoon had claimed more than 11,000 lives.

People are bringing tent stoves, flashlights, diapers, fleece blankets, and hand warmers. One of the many collection points has been organized by the German-Turkish care service Dosteli in Berlin.

At the governmental level, Germany — home to about three million people of Turkish origin — will” mobilise all the assistance we can activate”, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said on Wednesday.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz had a call with Erdogan and sent his “deep condolences”, as a search and rescue team left Tuesday afternoon with 50 rescuers and equipment. 

​​The EU said it was “funding humanitarian organisations that are carrying out search and rescue operations” in Syria as well as providing water and sanitation support and distributing blankets.

Charities line up to help

Particularly in Berlin, where over eight percent of the population is of Turkish origin, people have lined up down streets to drop off supplies. But they have led large donation efforts in cities like Frankfurt and Hamburg, where several businesses like bars set aside space to collect supplies,

The Dostali team had been sorting clothes and hygiene items all night, packing them and loading them into trucks. “Almost the entire Turkish diaspora in Berlin was there,” one volunteer told the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ)

The helpers organized themselves via appeals in social media. From the collection points, the donations are to be transported by trucks and planes to the affected regions. 

READ ALSO: Who are Germany’s foreign population and where do they live?

In response to an inquiry from the FAZ, Turkish Airlines confirmed that it was delivering donations from 14 countries to the Turkish crisis areas, Germany being one of them.

The Turkish community in Germany is well connected via social media – “and everyone wants to help,” said Kübra Oguz, a volunteer with the Puduhepa e.V., initiative founded by Turkish migrant women.

In order for this to happen in a targeted manner, she recommended directly donating money, which could then be funneled to buy food, hygiene products or shoes, depending on the need.

Several organisations in Germany and worldwide are also accepting donations for humanitarian aid, include UNICEF, Save the Children and Aktion Deutschland Hilft.

With reporting from AFP.

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