25/03/2023 LATEST UPDATES

Things in Turkey are looking good and more productive in the past two weeks. We have some developments and breakthroughs to report:

* last weekend we completed an HRE volunteer training course with Katrien Hertog and were happy to announce 10 new HRE teachers for Turkey

* kids HRE programs are in high demand. We're looking into teaching these courses in Ankara, Istanbul and southeast of Turkey starting early April. Our brilliant kids HRE facilitator Mony from Egypt has accepted our invitation and will be traveling soon to Turkey to support us. Also in southeast of Turkey there is a demand for courses with Syrian kids. So with her Arabic, we can also conduct programs for refuge kids in earthquake effected regions.

* yesterday we finally received the call and invitation to give courses in an area called Hatay near the Syrian boarder. The call came from high level officials from the Istanbul city municipality directors office. We were in touch with various parties introducing İAHV and HRE, its finally blossoming! Children and women's courses attracted their attention in particular. And now we are arranging with HRE/ AOL teachers in Turkey the logistics; dates to travel, where we can stay, how many courses we can teach etc...

* We have also received a generous donation/ project from Hong Kong and İAHV USA of 11,000 blankets for earthquake victims in Turkey. The items will be shipped from China to Turkey. We're looking into handling the logistics and administration, like free taxes, customs, warehouse storage, local delivery and etc.

Thats it for now from our end!

THE CAMPAIGN

This campaign is to provide much needed relief efforts to those affected by the Turkey-Syria earthquakes. Funds will support volunteers from the International Association for Human Values (IAHV) and Art of Living (AOL) in Turkey to offer assistance to those in need. Your donations will provide emergency trauma relief workshops to those affected.

For larger sum donations , you may donate directly to IAHVs UK bank account, with the reference TURKEY RELIEF: If you do this and are a UK tax payer, please send us an email to donations@iahv.org.uk and we will mail you a GiftAid form to claim the 25% extra possible.

Regular updates will be provided here, so you may see how your funds are being used.

For queries and offers of assistance, please contact: relief@iahv.org.uk

More on the situation and our HRE trauma relief specialism

An estimated 12 million people have been affected by the devastating Turkey-Syria earthquakes.

Thousands have lost their lives and many thousands more injured, as homes, buildings and entire neighbourhoods have collapsed.

Surviving families have been forced to flee, migrating across the country in freezing temperatures with no shelter.

Near the epicentre of the earthquake is a region already devastated by war. Hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees, struggling for survival amidst a bitter winter, now face an even tougher challenge.

Often, in such disasters, the survivors are haunted by images of what they've seen and the body is in a state of deep shock. Grieving the loss of loved ones and unable to sleep, unable to let go and unable to heal from the mental trauma, it becomes impossible to function.

IAHV specialises in highly effective trauma relief. Our critical mission is helping people cope with the huge trauma suffered and helping survivors heal from their mental wounds.

We plan to put teams on the ground as soon as access is permitted to the affected areas.

In the meantime we also plan to offer programmes to anyone traumatised by the earthquake but resident elsewhere.

Please donate generously now to help us reach as many people as possible.