The Turkish embassy in Lisbon is expected to send about 15 tons of goods to the country, collected through donations from the Portuguese, with the ambassador explaining that there is now a need for blankets, sleeping bags and tents.
Outside the walls of the embassy building in Lisbon, the scene consists of dozens and dozens of boxes and bags piled up and scattered on the floor as the volunteers — including Turkish citizens living in Lisbon, Portuguese, foreigners and the embassy staff themselves, namely the ambassador’s husband — try to keep order. set things up and arrange what comes in according to needs.
Two Portuguese women, who asked for anonymity, told Lusa that they decided to offer help to the Turkish embassy after hearing about the difficulties from an employee of that diplomatic mission.
As Teresa (fictitious name) explained, the employee made the request for help at the school her son attends, “the school was organized” and since “there are parents who are used to volunteering”, they offered to “have a give a little.” hand”.
“Right now we’re dividing up what’s a priority to go this Thursday, which is food, and separating everything so that the staff here at the embassy can pack it later to go by plane at night,” he said, specifying that the food includes -if dry and canned because everything goes liquid over land.
Teresa, who says she usually works in humanitarian operations, said she has already worked six hours at the embassy this Thursday, in addition to collecting supplies at a school for another three days.
Maria, her real name, has her children in the same school and as soon as she found out that the embassy had to collect, organize and prepare all the goods for shipment to Turkey, she didn’t hesitate for a second.
“There is a boy of Turkish origin in my daughter’s class, so I was aware of the problem. The Turkish mother also decided to cooperate and I felt I had to support her,” she said, admitting that she not the same time as ‘Teresa’, but been at the children’s school all Wednesday morning to help separate donations and packing.
He explained that his job was to “break everything apart because people send a lot of mixed stuff”, citing as an example a box that arrived with a canned food label and turned out to contain camping gear and hygiene items.
“There has been a huge effort, from a number of people, to try and achieve this Thursday night’s goal, which is the flight,” he said.
The Turkish ambassador in Lisbon said she is very grateful to all the people who have volunteered to help, in addition to official bodies, such as the prime minister or the foreign minister. She recalls that the Portuguese government immediately took the initiative to ransom teams for the country.
“We are grateful to everyone. I must say that as an ambassador I was very moved by the response and solidarity of the Portuguese people, from the first day we asked for donations. Companies, but also the elderly, young people, school children, who expressed their solidarity with the people of our country came to show”,tell Lusa Lale Ülker.
According to the official, taking into account the weather conditions currently felt in Turkey, with snow and negative temperatures, the main demand now is for blankets, sleeping bags, winter coats and tents, in addition to diapers and baby food.
“Through our airline, we have already shipped more than 10 tons of goods from Lisbon and about two tons from Porto,” he added, adding that the shipment was made via two daily flights.
Ambassador Lale Ülker estimated that 15 tons of goods would be shipped by the end of the week, “which is a huge support”.
He added that in the coming week they will receive “thousands of blankets” donated by companies and institutions and that the embassy will continue to ship them, whether by air, sea or land.
Lale Ülker also said that the embassy has suspended collection of clothing for logistical reasons, explaining that the priority is now on anything that can help overcome negative temperatures, and calls on those who want to donate to visit the Facebook page of consult the embassy.
At least 36,187 people died and another 108,000 were injured in Turkey after the two strong earthquakes that hit the country, Turkey’s Emergency and Disaster Response Service (AFAD) said Thursday.
The earthquakes caused the collapse of thousands of buildings – among which tens of thousands of bodies may still be buried, several Turkish and international experts warned – and another 50,000 buildings were seriously damaged and will have to be demolished.
So far, about 5,000 people have been killed in Syria due to earthquakes.
Source: DN
