9-year-old boy donates pocket money to quake victims in Türkiye
DUZCE, Türkiye
A 9-year-old boy in Türkiye, who survived an earthquake last year, has donated his pocket money to have a hand in relief efforts for his peers in the wake of Monday’s devastating earthquakes in southern Türkiye.
Alparslan Efe Demir was heartbroken when he saw the destruction caused by the two powerful quakes in southern Türkiye on television.
It was only a couple of months ago that Demir had to live in the tents set up by Türkiye’s Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) for a while after a magnitude 5.9 earthquake hit the northwestern Duzce province in November.
Sick at heart for people going through tough times, the boy told his mother Sinem Demir that he wanted to send the money in his piggy bank to his peers.
The mother and son visited the Duzce branch of the Turkish Red Crescent and handed over his pocket money to the authorities for them to deliver it to his peers in need.
The boy moved the Red Crescent employees to tears with the letter he wrote for the earthquake survivors.
“I was very scared when there was an earthquake in Duzce. I had the same fear when I heard about the earthquake in many of our cities. That is why I decided to send the pocket money given by my elders to the children there,” he said.
“It is okay if I do not buy chocolate here. Children there should not be cold or hungry. I will send my clothes and toys to the children there,” he said in his emotional letter.
Early Monday morning, a 7.7 magnitude tremor struck southern Türkiye’s Kahramanmaras province, then about nine hours later, a 7.6 magnitude quake hit rocked the same region, affecting several other provinces, including Adana, Adiyaman, Diyarbakir, Gaziantep, Hatay, Kilis, Malatya, Osmaniye, and Sanliurfa.
At least 3,432 people were killed and 21,103 others injured in 10 provinces of Türkiye due to the strong earthquakes, according to the latest figures by the country’s disaster agency AFAD on Tuesday.
The earthquake was also felt in several countries in the region, including Syria and Lebanon.
In neighboring Syria, at least 1,622 people were killed and hundreds injured in the powerful earthquakes centered in southern Türkiye, according to figures compiled on Tuesday from the Syrian regime’s Health Ministry and Syrian Civil Defense.
*Writing by Zehra Nur Duz
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