Public Radio for the Piedmont and High Country
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Samaritan's Purse provides medical help to earthquake-ravaged Turkey

A man records on his cellphone the destruction caused by the earthquake in Antakya, southeastern Turkey, Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2023. The earthquakes that killed more than 39,000 people in southern Turkey and northern Syria is producing more grieving and suffering along with extraordinary rescues and appeals for aid. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

A man records on his cellphone the destruction caused by the earthquake in Antakya, southeastern Turkey, Wednesday, Feb. 15, 2023. The earthquakes that killed more than 39,000 people in southern Turkey and northern Syria is producing more grieving and suffering along with extraordinary rescues and appeals for aid. (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Boone-based Samaritan’s Purse is providing medical assistance to victims of a devastating earthquake that struck Turkey and Syria earlier this month.

The Christian humanitarian aid organization is providing a makeshift hospital in Turkey with 52 beds. Teams will also provide emergency equipment including tarps, blankets and solar lights to the relief effort.

The February 6 earthquake ravaged parts of southern Turkey and northern Syria. This week, the United Nations appealed for almost $400 million to help survivors in rebel-held Syria who have received little assistance.

Nearly five million survivors are estimated to be in the Syrian region and the U.N. says food insecurity in the area was a problem even before the natural disaster.

The 7.8 magnitude earthquake is believed to have killed nearly 40,000 people.

Paul Garber is a Winston-Salem native and an award-winning reporter who began his journalism career with an internship at The High Point Enterprise in 1993. He has previously worked at The Augusta (Ga.) Chronicle, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The News and Record of Greensboro and the Winston-Salem Journal, where he was the newspaper's first full-time multimedia reporter. He won the statewide Media and the Law award in 2000 and has also been recognized for his business, investigative and multimedia reporting. Paul earned a BA from Wake Forest University and has a Master's of Liberal Arts degree from Johns Hopkins University and a Master's of Journalism and Mass Communication from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He lives in Lewisville.

Support quality journalism, like the story above,
with your gift right now.

Donate