Prime Minister De Croo visits large-scale collection campaign of the Turkish community in Antwerp: “Young and old, Turks and Belgians: everyone works together here” | Antwerp

In the old post office in the Uitbreidingstraat in Berchem, boxes with blankets, clothing, food and all kinds of other aids are piled up to the ceiling. Dozens of volunteers are still packing boxes at 8 pm, which will soon leave by truck for Turkey and Syria. The fundraising campaign started locally, but soon burst at the seams.

“On Monday morning, February 6, my wife woke me up: “Have you heard the news? There has been a major earthquake in Turkey and Syria,” says Unal Palit (50), chairman of the cultural center and mosque Selimiye in Berchem. “During breakfast we watched the news in shock. Afterwards, I immediately went to the cultural center and, together with my colleagues, called on social media to bring relief supplies to the mosque. That caused a chain reaction: the action started locally, but we were soon forced to look for another location because so much stuff was being collected.”

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That became the old post office in Berchem, which Prime Minister De Croo visited in person on Tuesday evening 14 February. He was shown around by a group of volunteers, including Erkan Ozturk (31), co-coordinator of the fundraising campaign. “The first trucks have already left, and the most important medical equipment is already on its way by plane. On Thursday, another 30 pallets of medical material will be delivered, collected by Antwerp pharmacies,” says Erkan.

“Goods are collected from Antwerp, but also from Genk, Rotterdam, Lokeren … From dry dog ​​food to clothing and pampers, but also camp beds and generators. We are now day nine after the disaster, and every day about 100 people are here to help. I haven’t slept much myself the last few days, we work with all our might. We may not be there, but we try to show that Antwerp also shows solidarity. Those people have nothing left: 13 million people are on the street, which is more than the Belgian population.”

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After the tour, Prime Minister De Croo also helps pack boxes with blankets. “We have faced something unprecedented in Turkey: more than 10,000 people have died, and more than 10 million people are in need,” said the prime minister. “What you see here in Berchem is heartwarming: so many volunteers, so many donations, so many trucks leaving here. At times like these, we are all human, regardless of our nationality or origin.”

What is the Belgian government doing to help victims in Turkey and Syria? “The Belgian intervention team B-FAST is busy building a field hospital in Turkey,” says De Croo. “Soon there will be a European conference where we will look at how we can start the reconstruction, but today medical help is especially important. We are making 12 million euros available for this. This is when most of the auxiliaries leave, but we stay.”

Zuhal Cetin (21) also contributes: together with the women of the mosque, she organized a breakfast buffet with which she collected 8,000 euros, and she has been working day and night as a volunteer since last week. “Young and old, Turks and Belgians: everyone works together here, which is nice to see,” says Zuhal. “A community is being formed again that many people lost, this has brought many people together. I don’t have any family in the affected area, but that doesn’t matter: we are one big family.”