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ITALY EARTHQUAKE

DEATH

Italy’s museums offer takings to restore quake-hit region

Italy's museums will donate all money raised from ticket sales on Sunday to help restore cultural treasures damaged or destroyed by Wednesday’s 6.0 magnitude quake in central Italy.

Published: 26 August 2016 13:51 CEST
Italy’s museums offer takings to restore quake-hit region
A damaged church in Amatrice. Photo: Filippo Monteforte/AFP

The Initiative, dubbed ‘museums4italy’ was announced on Thursday, by Culture Minister, Dario Franceschini.

Franceschini underscored that the current priority was saving lives, but said all state-run museums would donate their takings as ‘a show of solidarity for the people in affected areas.’

As the dust from the earthquake settles and hopes of more survivors being pulled from the rubble fade, attention is turning to the Herculean task of rebuilding the places hardest-hit, such as the devastated town of Amatrice.

Franceschini said town's flattened historic centre had been ‘one of the most beautiful in Italy’ and told reporters that it would be rebuilt as before.

But Amatrice is just one of the centuries-old towns across northern Lazio and Marche damaged by the quake, where in addition to the immense human tragedy, a wealth of cultural and artistic heritage has been lost.

“We have so far identified 293 items of cultural or historic interest which have been damaged or destroyed within a 20 kilometre radius of the epicentre ” the minister added.

The ‘museums4italy’ scheme is one of many which have been launched to raise money to help the disaster-hit region.

On Wednesday, a food blogger launched a scheme which will see Italian restaurants around the world make €2 donations for every plate of Amatriciana pasta served.

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. 

Published: 8 February 2023 12:16 CET
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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