Izmir Earthquake

It’s 2:30 pm on Friday, afternoon.

Earth shakes its mighty earthquake.

Fear and panic prevail.

After more than thirty seconds the earthquake stops, so the news comes:

A 6.6-magnitude earthquake strikes the coastal city of Izmir.

The outcomes:

Thirty seconds would have left dozens of victims behind, demolished homes, and thousands of wounded people who stacked in hospitals.

The news arrives in Taipei:

In a world that has turned into a small village, news quickly reaches Taipei, the source of good and humanity.

The horror of the scene hurts the Master, Cheng Yen, who asks the volunteers to go to Izmir and have a closer look at the circumstance and conditions of those affected there.

Immediately, under the cloak of darkness, Tzu Chi volunteer team set off from Istanbul to Izmir, on a journey that lasted about 5 hours, to monitor the conditions of the city after the devastating earthquake.

Monitoring city conditions:

Grief can be read on the faces, the state of fear and anxiety of other potential tremors is obvious, and the rescue teams have not stopped carrying out their tasks in an attempt to save lives that may still be alive under the rubble like what happened with the two children, Elif and Ida, who had spent 90 hours under the rubble before they were found.

So was Allah’s will, to grant them a new life.

The volunteer team also visited temporary shelters for those whose apartments were destroyed and monitored their difficult conditions, especially that winter has set in very early this year.

It is noteworthy that the first activity of the Tzu Chi Charitable Foundation in Turkey was in the summer of 1999 after the devastating earthquake that struck Istanbul at that time leaving hundreds of victims.

Tzu Chi always pioneers in goodness and giving a helping hand to all people everywhere.