Earthquake strikes southern Türkiye and northern Syria
2023-02-07: TÜRKIYE: Last night a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck the border region between southern Türkiye (Turkey) and northern Syria. CMAT has learned that nearly 5,000 people have died and thousands more are injured. This devastation is likely to increase considerably because more than 1000 buildings have already collapsed and aftershocks of strong magnitude continue.
Southern Türkiye has been heavily affected, particularly areas around Gaziantep and Hatay/Antakya, major hubs for NGOs supporting victims of the Syrian crisis. The earthquake also affected areas in northwestern Syria, which continue to be heavily affected by the crisis in Syria and host the majority of the 6.7 million Syrians who have had to flee their homes in recent years.
CMAT is sending a preliminary survey to our volunteers to gauge interest in possible deployment to Türkiye.
This deployment is not yet confirmed.
There may be a particular need for Primary Care and Emergency Physicians, Nurse Practitioners and Registered Nurses, as well as Primary and Advanced Care Paramedics, Psychosocial and Logistics support. Details are still being investigated.
- If you are interested in potentially deploying to Türkiye (location TBA – although at present we do not expect to be deployed in northern Syria or in an active combat zone), please ensure your CMAT Volunteer profile is up to date with all the mandatory documentation uploaded. We will need to provide WHO with copies of:
- your passport
- your professional license
- your vaccination record including COVID-19 vaccination
- other documents as listed on the profile
- your secondary language abilities (particularly Turkish, Levantine Arabic (Syrian), Kurmanji, Pashto, Zazaki and others)
2. You can access your CMAT Profile by visiting: http://cmat.ca/volunteer - To login – use the email address where received this email as your username.
- You can then reset your password by clicking “Forgot password”.
3. Please also complete this Expression of Interest Form: - https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfVlAxlpRd9L1Norjinm5iLI7ECY1xcJJPKbuLPdw5xIuhKUQ/viewform
If you have any questions, please email volunteer @ cmat . ca, however please be aware that the information we have is quite limited at this time.
