WHO LAUNCHES $43M APPEAL TO SUPPORT EARTHQUAKE RESPONSE IN SYRIA, TÜRKIYE

Tue 14 February 2023:

“I expect this to at least double over the coming days, as we get a better assessment of the massive scale of this crisis and the needs,” said WHO Regional Director for Europe Hans Kluge in a press briefing related to urgent health needs and response in Türkiye following last week’s earthquakes.

Kluge said that the money will be used to “Ensure access to the most vulnerable and hard-to-reach populations, provide trauma care and post-trauma rehabilitation and provide essential medicines and emergency kits to fill urgent healthcare gaps.”

It will also be used to “deliver vital mental and psychosocial support to the affected populations and ensure continuity of routine health services, especially for women, children, the elderly, and those with non-communicable diseases,” he added.

UN launches $397m Syria appeal

The UN has launched an appeal for $397.6m to help victims in Syria.

A statement said the money was needed “to respond to the most pressing humanitarian needs over the next three months”.

Antonio Guterres, the world body’s chief, said a similar appeal for Turkey was in the “final stages”.

More than 7 million children affected by Turkey-Syria quake: UN

More than seven million children have been affected by the massive earthquake and a major aftershock that devastated Türkiye and Syria last week, the United Nations said Tuesday, voicing fear that “many thousands” more had died.

“In Turkey, the total number of children living in the 10 provinces hit by the two earthquakes was 4.6 million children. In Syria, 2.5 million children are affected,” James Elder, spokesman for the UN children’s agency Unicef, told reporters in Geneva.

SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES

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