Our teams have been on the ground delivering emergency food, shelter and medical supplies since a few hours after the magnitude 7.8 and 7.5 earthquakes hit cities near the Türkiye-Syria border. Now we are also clearing rubble from key roads to ensure more aid gets to those in need, improving water supplies, and supporting dedicated outreach teams for women and children.

More than 40 million people are affected by the disaster. More than 41,000 people have now been confirmed dead and tens of thousands are wounded. Thousands of buildings have been destroyed.The earthquakes come amid biting winter temperatures, leaving those made homeless by the disaster vulnerable to hypothermia. In northern Syria, the shelters for homeless families are severely overcrowded, with two or three families sharing a single small tent – as there are not enough tents to go around. There are growing fears of outbreaks of water-borne diseases such as cholera and typhoid, as water supplies have been damaged or contaminated.

Many of the people affected – in both Türkiye and Syria – have already suffered from years of violent crisis inside Syria, which has displaced millions of people, destroyed infrastructure and pushed most people into poverty. Now the earthquake has struck to make this crisis even worse.