Message to Servas Community
Re: Earthquake in Turkey and Syria
We are deeply saddened to hear about the earthquake in Turkey and Suria. It has devasted the village of Ekinci where Servas Turkey has held its summer peace school for the last 15 years. Servas International is committed to supporting Servas Turkey in helping the people of Turkey overcome this terrible misfortune. We are also committed to ensuring that the tradition that we have set up with the peace school can continue in the future.
We are asking Servas Turkey members, specially those near the area, to tell us about the situation and inform us how we can help. Once we hear from them, we will communicate to the entire Servas community of our plans to support them.
Our tentative plan is also to set up a fund (if feasible) for those affected by this tragedy, but we will do so after hearing from those affected and working out the modalities of getting needed help to them. We will keep the Servas community posted on our efforts with our communications.
In the meantime, if you wish to be of immediate help, we suggest that you get in touch with organizations like Red Cross and Doctors without Borders and other agencies that specialize in providing support after disasters.
Sincerely,
On behalf of SI Exco,
Radha B. Radhakrishna
President, Servas International
The epicentre was in Gaziantep. Gazian
tep is around 200 km from Ekinci. Images from nearby town of Dyarbakir on tv shows how terrible it is. The problem is that the buildings are not earthquake proof, otherwise the loss of human lives would not have been so dramatic. The region is Antakya. The nearest airport to Ekinci is Hatay airport, which is now closed because the destroyed tarmac uplifted, due to the tremors. So, the runway has been closed for flight operations.