Donate money instead as list of needs for quake victims changes: Türkiye ambassador to Singapore

SINGAPORE: Türkiye's Ambassador to Singapore Mehmet Burcin Gonenli said on Friday (Feb 10) that the list of needs for Türkiye and Syria earthquake victims is changing and encouraged people to make financial donations instead. 

This comes after an outpouring of support for the victims of the deadly earthquakes that struck Türkiye and Syria on Monday, killing nearly 22,000. 

In an earlier post on Facebook, the embassy had called for donations of winter clothing and other supplies including tents, women's hygiene products and diapers. 

However, clothes are no longer needed, said Mr Gonenli, adding that the priority list now includes items such as blankets, heaters and generators. 

“Our list of requirements is also changing in conjunction with the situation in earthquake-stricken areas,” he said. 

“Hence we encourage our Singaporean friends to consider making monetary donations through official accounts, as this would provide Turkish authorities with the requisite flexibility.” 

On Thursday, the embassy announced that it would temporarily suspend the collection of individual in-kind donations until further notice due to the "large in-flow". 

Despite this, supplies continued to pour in when CNA arrived at a donation centre in MacPherson on Friday at about 4.30pm. 

Donors were seen squeezing their way through hundreds of boxes at Jay Gee Melwani House at 10 Genting Lane to drop off their items. 

This was despite signs saying that the centre was not accepting more donations. 

Meanwhile, dozens of volunteers rushed to sort supplies, before packing and loading them into lorries that will eventually transport the goods to Changi Airport. 

“Since yesterday and early this morning, volunteers have been coming in to help sort the items and it’s just crazy. When I came in today, I saw mountains of bags and donations,” said Ms Hayley Ridgwell, an employee of The Black Hole Group, which opened its space to receive donations on Thursday after the embassy became too packed.

“Although we’ve already said we’re not taking in any more donations, people still keep coming,” she added. 

“It’s difficult to tell them ‘no’ because they already came all the way here and some of them really come with a van full of items and you just can’t say ‘no’ to that.”

Speaking to CNA, Mr Gonenli expressed appreciation for the “outstanding” support from Singaporeans but shared that the embassy’s capacity to sort the items is “quite limited”.

“We don’t want to turn them down out of respect. You can say this is a catch 22 (situation),” he said. 

“Singaporeans are very generous and want to help and so we want to be careful not to disrespect them.” 

As the embassy is only sending new or unused items to Türkiye, Mr Gonenli said that he is establishing connections with local non-governmental organisations so that the donated secondhand goods do not go to waste.