Bilbao (EFE).- Bizkaia is turning to sending aid to those affected by the earthquake that has shaken Turkey and Syria, mainly warm clothing and blankets, but also baby food and hygiene products.
At the Bilbao headquarters of the DYA, there are queues of cars that approach to deliver shelter material.
This is what the association has requested to face the temperatures of minus ten degrees below zero that are endured in the affected areas.
Verónica Rial, a DYA volunteer, has commented to EFE-TV that since the collection began yesterday, the citizen response “has been fantastic, stupendous.”
In the 100-square-meter room where the material is stored, “the clothes reach two meters in height.”
The DYA will maintain the campaign until February 19 and to develop it, it needs as many volunteers as possible in order to classify the clothes.
Then you have to pack it, put it in boxes and notify the Turkish Embassy, which picks it up and takes care of the transport.
The business association of care center managers, GESCA, also collaborates in collecting the DYA through its twenty-eight residences and day centers in Bizkaia.
Warm clothing
Another non-governmental organization that has established a collection point is GBGE, from Galdakao (Bizkaia).
Their representative, Álvaro Saiz, has told EFE-TV that they also collect summer clothes, “in case the situation lasts”, as well as food, diapers, footwear and hygiene material.
He explained that this organization, with ten years of experience and that has worked in Mongolia, Poland, Greece or the Canary Island of La Palma, works with the displaced population far from the catastrophe.
In addition to sending material, it also identifies projects to carry out.
In this specific case, they are considering setting up mass mobile recharging points with a couple of generators and 200 or 300 plugs.
Saiz has specified that they have their own funds, but they need economic collaboration and for this they have established a bizum system at number 05028.
The Bizkaia Provincial Council, on the other hand, has allocated 50,000 euros to send emergency humanitarian aid with the aim of reaching some 580 families in the north of the latter country.
The regional government will allocate a game of 25,000 euros to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
The other 25,000 euros will go to the United Nations Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Middle East (UNRWA).
These entities will distribute emergency material among the affected population.
Northern Syria
This emergency humanitarian aid will reach northern Syria, where both United Nations entities are operating on the ground.
The kits to be distributed contain emergency medical supplies and essential household items, hygiene products or warm clothing.
“We have to be there to contribute from Bizkaia to the best of our ability”, indicated the regional deputy for Employment, Social Inclusion and Equality, Teresa Laespada.
The Provincial Council recalled that the latest figures for the catastrophe in Turkey and Syria record nearly 20,000 deaths.
This is in addition to the previous situation of more than 6.8 million internally displaced people in Syria and more than 4 million female refugees and asylum seekers in Turkey.” EFE