Solidarity with the victims of the earthquake in Syria and Türkiye

Issue 19: 17/2/2023, Issue 20: 24/2/2023 Strategic Objective:

Last week’s devastating events in an area that was already seeing a lot of suffering have struck all of us. For many, this has resulted in a desire to show solidarity and support. Some of you may have already donated goods through one of the many local initiatives. 

Disaster relief experts stress that cash donations provide relief organizations with the flexibility to react swiftly to the ever-changing situation on the ground. In an effort to provide help quickly, lots of fundraising initiatives spring up—not all equally effective and, unfortunately, not all honest. 

To help you through the donation quagmire, let us offer these pointers:

  1. Read here some guidelines on making the most of your donation (many other organizations have developed similar guidelines). 
  2. Make sure you personally are comfortable with the charity and its overall as well as disaster-specific mission.
  3. To get you started, we are listing three organizations that are known to be highly effective in the region and experienced in dealing with disasters of this scale. While in general it is recommended to give to local organizations (i.e., Syrian and Turkish ones), we found it hard to actually make donations through those that were recommended to us. We therefore list the HK branches of international organizations with a long-term, sizable presence in the two affected countries and donation mechanisms that are broadly accessible to us (e.g., in terms of language or method).  There are many others, and this is not meant to be a preference or an endorsement. Also note that the links below take you to websites outside of the LFIS domain and the school nor FISCA are responsible for their content.

Save The Children is bringing its ample experience helping children and their families in the aftermath of heavy earthquakes to its teams on the ground: https://savethechildren.org.hk/en/turkey-and-syria-earthquake-donate-now/

FISCA Team

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