Thousands of people were murdered and buildings were destroyed in Turkey and Syria lately due to an earthquake, and a Pakistani immigrant living in the United States has contributed $30 million to help those countries rebuild.
As the death toll and property damage from the disaster continues to rise, reports of the Pakistani businessman’s generosity have provided a rare bright spot.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif tweeted on Saturday that he was “deeply moved by the example” set by an anonymous compatriot who came into the Turkish embassy in the US capital of Washington DC and made the multimillion-dollar donation to benefit victims of the quake.
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The tweet from Sharif continued, “These are such magnificent acts of compassion that enable mankind to prevail over the seemingly insurmountable barriers.”
Mustafa Tanyeri, editor-in-chief of the Election Post, tweeted that Turkey’s ambassador to the United States, Murat Mercan, verified the payment to the US earthquake aid drive.
Following UNWFP’s pleas for $77m to feed at least 590,000 refugees in Turkey and 284,000 refugees in Syria, the donation came in. About 45,000 were refugees, and another 545,000 were displaced within their own countries, the program estimates.
Six days after the massive 7.8-magnitude earthquake hit areas of Turkey and Syria, more than 33,000 people died, according to estimates compiled by the United States Geological Survey on Sunday morning.
With each passing day, rescuers’ hopes of finding survivors diminish, therefore the death toll are likely to rise.
As of Sunday, about 30,000 of the total deaths were in Turkey. Yet, the earthquake hit a region of northwest Syria where many people had already been uprooted multiple times due to the country’s ongoing civil war.
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As a rebel stronghold, that area has received less aid than others, despite the United States temporarily lifting sanctions on Syria to hasten the supply of supplies.
UN assistance head Martin Griffiths tweeted on Saturday from the Turkish border, “We have so far failed the people in north-west Syria.”
The fact that just one border crossing between Turkey and Syria is open for UN aid further complicates relief efforts.
Those following events in Turkey and Syria have had to turn to stories of survival to distract themselves from the continually growing death toll, outside of the $30 million donation by the Pakistani billionaire living in the US for the earthquake victims.
A Syrian man named Malik Milandi, 54, is the subject of one such tale; he was buried alive in the rubble for 156 hours before being rescued by a Chinese rescue crew and Turkish firemen.
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Meanwhile, another involved a toddler, a father with his five-year-old daughter, and a 10-year-old girl who had been rescued from collapsed buildings in southern Turkey almost a week after the earthquake.
