'God save us all': Eight-year-old Telford girl's message to Turkish survivors as aid heads to disaster zone
Telford's Turkish community have banded together to send around 100 boxes of aid to the disaster-stricken country.
Within 24 hours after the devastating earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, members of Telford's Turkish Community Association had collected almost 100 boxes of critical aid.
Boxes full of clothes and blankets were collected by members and shipped over to Turkey on Wednesday.
Their contributions will help survivors battling the freezing conditions that are plaguing the country following the 7.8-magnitude quake on Monday morning.
Faruk Yuksel from the Telford association spoke of the day the news started coming in.
He said: "Monday morning was really, really bad. Everybody didn't think it was that big, but when the sun came up everyone realised just how bad it was. A total disaster."
Wasting no time, the charity began orchestrating a huge aid collection.
Faruk explained: "We called an association working with the Turkish government on Monday morning and asked if they were taking donations, they said yes so we started collecting. In one day we had nearly 100 boxes."
His daughter, eight-year-old, Betul, included one of her own teddy bears with a note that read: "This is the teddy bear I hug when I sleep every night, I'm sending it you. I love you so much. Please don't be afraid, may God save us all."
The next day, the charity loaded up a van and took the donations to Birmingham Airport, from which a Turkish airline was shipping aid.
For the moment, Faruk explained, organisations have stopped asking for physical aid.
"There is so much stuff stuck in Istanbul," he said, "they say they have enough now."
Instead, the charity is now working with other British Turkish associations to raise £500,000.
For more information and to donate to the Turkish Earthquake Appeal, visit turkishearthquakeappeal.uk
