On Monday, February 6, 2023, a pair of magnitude 7.8 and 7.7 earthquakes killed more than 42,000 people in southern and central Turkey and more than 5,000 in northern parts of Syria and caused catastrophic damage. Thousands have been left without shelter in winter weather.
Three major airports in Turkey are unable to receive flights bringing international aid due to damaged runways. According to the World Health Organization, at least 23 million people, including 1.4 million children, are likely to be affected by this disaster.
Teams from charities NCF givers know and already support are on the ground working to help with the most immediate needs of those affected.
We’ve compiled a list of U.S.-based charities that are working in Turkey and Syria. All the charities on the list below are approved to receive grants from NCF givers right away. If you already have a Giving Fund at NCF, log in today to recommend a grant. If you don’t have a Giving Fund, you can open one in just minutes.
As you consider where to give, please join us in praying for comfort for these grieving families, many of whom are refugees of the protracted Syrian war and were already living through trauma.
- We advise that you designate your grant for the Turkey/Syria earthquake. Some of the organizations in this story are working in locations all over the world.
- This is a developing story. Charities may be added as we receive more information.
Americares
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UPDATED: Americares assists local health partners by responding with medicine and medical supplies to hospitals, clinics, and medical teams. They maintain stocks of donated and purchased medical and relief supplies in the United States, Europe, and Asia and have the capability to ship to Turkey and Syria. One year after the earthquakes, Americares continues to offer assistance to partner organizations in the region, providing long-term, health-focused support for those impacted by the earthquake. Over the course of the past year, Americares has provided 16 local partners in Türkiye and Syria with $3 million in aid, delivering more than 18 tons of medicine and medical supplies.
Ananias House
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Ananias House is an organization in the Middle East that supports churches as places of restoration, healing, and hope by providing support through prayer, advocacy, strategic leadership training, gospel-centered resourcing, and financial support to meet practical needs. Ananias House’s leaders are now distributing food, flashlights, blankets, shoes, coats, and winter clothes.
Photo: Water Mission
Bible Mission Global
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People affected by natural disasters, who have lost their homes, children from poor families – all need immediate aid to survive, and they need ongoing support. The purpose of help provided through Bible Mission Global’s relief efforts is to share the love of God and the saving message of the gospel with their recipients. Through their local network, they are establishing Hope Tents, which provide water, stoves for cooking simple meals to distribute to those displaced, and a place for people to warm up.
Convoy of Hope
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Convoy of Hope immediately began sending funding so purchases of essential supplies could be made in other parts of Turkey and the region and trucked to the disaster zone. They are working to figure out what restrictions exist on what can be sent, as well as the cost to do so. They are shipping in a variety of ways, air, sea and by truck in-country to get supplies to the front lines as quickly as possible. The most urgent needs that Convoy is working to fill are clothing, tents, sleeping bags, diapers, and baby formula. Fuel shortages are a major concern.
Feed My Starving Children
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In response to the crisis in Turkey and Syria, Feed My Starving Children (FMSC) is working with their existing vetted partners in the region to urgently assess and respond to this growing need, determining both short- and long-term relief strategies. They are scaling up production rapidly to deploy emergency response meals. Knowing this humanitarian disaster isn’t going to end soon, FMSC and their partners will be providing at least 500,000 meals to this region.
Help The Persecuted
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Help The Persecuted has focused their relief efforts on the underserved and hard-to-reach areas of Syria. They are equipping their church partners with funds so they can meet immediate needs in their communities. They are providing food, water, shelter, and heat for those displaced. They’re also forming a pastoral care team to minister to traumatized, grieving believers and to share the gospel with others.
International Christian Response
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International Christian Response (ICR), founded in 1969 by visionary Richard Wurmbrand, is providing relief packages to displaced survivors of the devastating earthquake. ICR’s regional directors are teaming up with their trusted network of local churches and Christians, who provide volunteer leadership and have access to supply chains for dependable delivery. ICR is moving quickly through its rapid response efforts to provide food, baby formula, warm blankets, clothing, hygiene, and heating supplies.
Operation Mobilization
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Operation Mobilization (OM), through their local partners, is responding to support those in most need by distributing food, water, hygiene packs, and non-food essential items, such as warm clothing, blankets, heaters and heating fuel. With their local partners in this region for over 50 years, OM is confident they can channel relief funds in an appropriate and timely manner.
Partners Relief and Development
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Partners Relief and Development’s team and local partners launched an immediate response and are already in earthquake-affected communities helping evacuate civilians and injured people from collapsed buildings, providing critical medical assistance, and supplying food, beds, and fuel for the refugee centers that are hosting displaced families. Every donation you give will be matched for twice the impact.
Samaritan’s Purse
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Samaritan’s Purse has deployed a 52-bed emergency field hospital near Antakya in southern Turkey. The field hospital is being established on property surrounding the 1,100-bed Hatay State Hospital, which was irreparably crippled and made unsafe by the earthquakes. Their teams are also bringing tarps, blankets, and solar lights into the hardest-hit areas and distributing “family survival kits,” which include warm blankets, buckets with water filters, cooking utensils, soap, and other daily essentials.
Save the Children
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In Turkey, Save the Children’s teams are coordinating closely with local partners on the ground, including Turkish Red Crescent and Support to Life, to distribute tents, hygiene kits, clothing, heaters, blankets, and other essential items. In addition, their Emergency Health Unit (EHU), which provides life-saving healthcare in emergencies, has been deployed to Turkey to conduct assessments. In Northwest Syria, they’re working with long-standing local partners to distribute tents and winterization kits and provide health centers much-needed fuel.
Send Relief
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Send Relief, the compassion ministry of the Southern Baptist Convention, is working with local partners and churches to respond to immediate needs following the earthquake and subsequent aftershocks. They have begun distributing blankets, water bottles, food, and other emergency supplies on the ground in impacted communities. Through their partner, they are also providing hygiene kits and heating supplies to thousands displaced by the disaster, as well as trauma counseling for those who have lost everything.
Strategic Resource Group (SRG)
SRG is working with key ministry partners to provide temporary shelters, blankets, portable heating units, clothing, water, food, medical care and supplies, and other goods and services as needed. Over the course of many crises across the Middle East region, SRG has seen how God has used his Church to demonstrate love and compassion to people in great need. With this knowledge, SRG is able to help ministry partners move beyond temporary relief to offer eternal relief – the saving knowledge of Christ.
Uncharted Ministries/100x Harvest
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Uncharted Ministries is partnering with 100x Harvest to provide support to severely affected areas. The city of Antakya in Turkey, the Biblical city of Antioch where new followers of Jesus were first called “Christians,” has been reduced to rubble. Uncharted has a growing work in the city and is heartbroken that some new believers in underground churches lost their lives in the earthquake. Uncharted has a team of 15 national leaders in Syria and is deploying food, blankets, clothes, and shelter to those who have lost everything. Many above-ground churches in Syria are now housing new refugees from the earthquake, most of whom are Sunni Muslims from the area around the cities of Aleppo, Hama, and Homs.
Unto (CRU Middle East)
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Unto is working with local partners to provide humanitarian aid and support. With an extensive network on the ground, they are uniquely positioned to relieve suffering through humanitarian aid. Unto meets critical needs for victims of natural disasters worldwide by providing food, water, shelter, and other resources – while building relationships that give their teams opportunities to share the hope of Jesus. Humanitarian relief supplies include items such as: meals, blankets to help displaced people weather harsh winter conditions, tarps for emergency shelter, and a supply of water for compromised sources.
Photo: Water Mission employees test for safe water
Water Mission
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With more than 20 years of experience responding to natural disasters and humanitarian crises, Water Mission has an extensive background in providing immediate and long-term safe water solutions. Water Mission is deploying their Disaster Assistance Response Team to the region, where they will assess the safe water, sanitation, and hygiene needs of those impacted by the disaster to determine how they can best serve our global neighbors.
World Central Kitchen
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World Central Kitchen provides meals in response to humanitarian, climate, and community crises. Their relief team is on the ground in Turkey distributing meals for survivors and first responders. WCK’s relief team reached communities near the epicenter in Turkey two days after the disaster. Working with local partners, they are supporting families impacted by the crisis and authorities stretched thin due to the scale of the disaster.
World Help
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World Help is working with a network of partners in Turkey and Syria who are assessing the damage and identifying the greatest needs following these historic earthquakes. They have a long history of working in both countries and are now delivering aid to displaced people. The greatest needs in the aftermath of this tragedy are food, clean water, warm clothing, and shelter. Their partners are also offering New Testaments along with these items. World Help plans to continue supplying aid and helping as the extended recovery begins.
World Relief
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World Relief is responding to provide immediate assistance through their network of long-standing partners and churches in the region to distribute food and clean water, provide emergency medical assistance, build safe, reliable shelters, supply sanitation and hygiene resources, and care for survivors through psychosocial and trauma support. They are responding via the efforts of the partners of Tearfund Germany in Turkey and Syria.
World Vision
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World Vision has established teams in the region and is responding in both areas with clean water, health and nutrition assistance, shelter and survival items, cash/livelihood assistance, and child protection efforts. In Syria, fuel has been provided to medical facilities and search-and-rescue teams; people in shared emergency shelters have been supported with heaters and fuel; medical consultations and treatment are being rolled out through health centers; and ready-to-eat meals are being provided. They hope to continue to provide emergency assistance through meals and clean water, bedding, emergency medication, and other urgent supplies.
Top photo: Medair/Lisanne van der Schors via World Relief
