Türkiye, Syria earthquake; death toll expected to rise
Both Syria and Türkiye have declared a state of emergency after a 7.8 magnitude earthquake rocked the two countries early Monday morning.
At least 11,500 people are dead, more than 50,000 people are injured, and at least 11,000 buildings were destroyed. The death toll is expected to rise sharply as rescue workers continue to search for survivors in the rubble.
This comes at the worst possible time as it is the middle of winter in Syria and Türkiye. Hundreds of thousands of people will now be struggling to survive without access to food, medical care, or protection from freezing temperatures.
UMR is responding in the form of food baskets, winter care kits, emergency health kits for households, and Interagency Emergency Health Kits for hospitals and medical clinics.
To reiterate, in a disaster of this proportion, any donation will make a difference in the lives of individuals who lost everything.
In coordination with our partners, UMR also conducts cataract surgeries in Jordan. Each mission involves highly qualified and experienced doctors from the US who worked with their counterparts at Shami Eye Center, Amman and conduct surgeries.The Save Syria Medical Mission, implemented in conjunction with IMANA, is an ongoing project that brings volunteer doctors to provide low-cost primary and acute care to refugees of all nationalities that reside in Jordan.Services are provided in the Zarqa and Mafraq governates of Jordan. In 2018, UMR and IMANA provided health consultancies and primary health services to 6,500 patients primarily from Syrian and Palestinian refugee backgrounds.
UMR launched a project to provide immediate assistance to drought-affected IDPs and host communities in and around Mogadishu and Luug District, Gedu region. The scheme enabled people to access food as they waited for additional humanitarian interventions. The project helped feed 3,000 beneficiaries. UMR used World Food Program’s (WFP) support to improve food security through the SCOPE approach. This project targeted the most vulnerable IDPs passing through or staying in the region. It also registered beneficiaries from the IDP camp as well vulnerable households. The targeted beneficiaries received family/household rations equivalent to the ones delivered by WFP and recommended by the Somalia Food Security Cluster. The quota included 25kgs of rice, 25kgs of sugar, 5 liters of cooking oil, 2kgs of tea leaves and 5kgs of powdered milk.
