Student-led groups rally support to assist victims of the devastating earthquake in Turkey, Syria

The Purdue University and Greater Lafayette communities are rallying behind a humanitarian effort led by the Turkish Student Association to raise money, supplies and other assistance in support of the earthquake-ravaged victims in Turkey and Syria.

In addition to cash, everything from clothing, diapers and baby formula to medical supplies, blankets and sleeping bags have been donated for the victims of last week’s earthquake that devastated southeastern Turkey and northwestern Syria.

Friday’s relief effort was launched through a public event at Room 1132 in the Wilmeth Active Learning Center. Cash donations also still being accepted — go here for more information. And supplies can be dropped off at the Islamic Center near campus at 1022 First St. So far, the student group has raised nearly $10,000 for the quake victims.

Bora Onur Taspek, president of the Turkish Student Association at Purdue, has led the organizing of a fundraiser to assist victims of the earthquake that rocked Turkey and Syria last week. “We’re doing whatever we can,” says Taspek, a junior from Istanbul who is studying aeronautical and astronautical engineering. (Purdue University photo/Phillip Fiorini) Download image

“There’s nothing else we can do but come together to help our people. Every little bit grows to make a difference,” says TSA president Bora Onur Taspek, a junior in aeronautical and astronautical engineering from Istanbul. “Every time I see a name of a donor who’s not Turkish, it makes me feel all the more united in our response to this tragedy.”

Over 29,000 people have been killed in Turkey and 3,500 across the border in Syria in what has been described as the deadliest and most devastating quake in a decade. Another 77,711 were injured in Turkey. In Syria, rescue workers say over 2,950 were injured.

In addition to the TSA, students are launching a relief effort for quake victims in Syria. Shatha Alrasheed, a mechanical engineering senior from Saudi Arabia, and Estelle Gardner, a biochemistry freshman from Indiana, are organizing an event at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday (Feb. 15) in WALC, Room B093. That event is on behalf of Purdue’s South West Asian and North African student group, which is working with the Syrian American Medical Society. “We fear the impact of the earthquake on the Syrians is much worse than we’re hearing,” Alrasheed says.

Purdue professor Tulin Ece Tosun, attending Friday’s TSA fundraiser, has had several sleepless nights the past week, worrying about her parents in Gaziantep, Turkey, just 40 miles south of the epicenter. Fortunately, they are safe, says Tosun, an assistant teaching professor in Purdue’s Cornerstone program. “Miraculously, their apartment was not badly damaged, but they still didn’t feel safe staying there. They’ve slept in their car, then stayed with friends before they were able to catch a flight to Istanbul,” she says.

The task of Purdue earthquake engineering researcher Ayhan Irfanoglu will be focused on just that when he travels this week from West Lafayette to Turkey — how some buildings were totally destroyed near the epicenter while other structures sustained little or no damage. He will spend a week there as part of an advance team dispatched by the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, a leading national nonprofit academic organization.

“Our mission will be to assess the quake’s damage in preparation for a more extensive trip in March,” says Irfanoglu, associate head of civil engineering at Purdue who has conducted field research following several earthquakes in his home country of Turkey since 1999.

Writer: Phillip Fiorini, pfiorini@purdue.edu, 765-430-6189