Turkish community members in Ames care for one another, raise money for their homeland after quakes
People in Ames were still trying to assess the condition of loved ones at home in Turkey four days after an earthquake struck their country and became one of the deadliest natural disasters of the century.
Mesih Kılınç, who came to Iowa State University two years ago to work on a doctorate degree in bioinformatics, said his hometown is Elazığ, Turkey.
He and his family were psychologically affected by a 6.8-magnitude earthquake that struck there in January 2020 and killed dozens of people.
His family felt the shaking from Feb. 6's pair of earthquakes of magnitude 7.8 and 7.5, though the epicenters were hundreds of miles away. Those quakes and aftershocks have killed more than 23,000 people in Turkey and neighboring Syria as of Friday afternoon, but Kılınç said his family was physically all right.
But with that level of destruction, Kılınç and Yasin Karatay, a postdoctoral research associate in Iowa State's English department, have started a GoFundMe fundraiser for earthquake aid.
More:Turkey, Syria earthquake updates: Dramatic rescues of 10-day-old baby, mother and children
They are hoping to raise $10,000 for the North Carolina-based nonprofit Bridge to Turkiye, which will in turn wire funds to the Ahbap Association in Turkey to get aid to where it's needed.
The GoFundMe, "ISU Helps Earthquake Victims In Turkiye," is available at gofundme.com/f/ISU-Helps-Earthquake-Victims-In-Turkiye.
“We wanted to let people know that there’s a way that they can donate to Turkey. I personally have had people ask me before,” Kılınç said.
As of Friday afternoon, more than $2,100 had been donated.
Kılınç said donations from the U.S. are extra valuable, given the strength of the U.S. dollar against Turkey's currency, the lira.
He said a Pakistani friend contacted him after the earthquakes and taught him how to proceed with a fundraiser — something his friend had recent experience with after devastating floods in Pakistan.
But it's about more than just money. Kılınç said a gathering of the Turkish community in Ames is planned for 3 p.m. Saturday at Somerset Clubhouse, 2400 Aspen Road.
He said the community had not really had a chance to see one another since the quakes, so the event would be an opportunity "just to check on each other" and talk about what more could be done to help.
There were 33 Turkish students enrolled at Iowa State in the fall, according to international enrollment data, with 25 of those students in graduate programs.
The same data showed two undergraduate students enrolled from Syria.
Yusuf Demirci is a senior at Ames High School, born and raised in Iowa, but his parents immigrated to the U.S. in 1995 from Gaziantep, Turkey — one of the places hit hardest by this week's earthquakes.
Demirci said his relatives in Turkey are OK, "however, we do have some friends who are under the rubble right now" in Gaziantep.
Cellphone towers were knocked out, but he said they know their friends are still inside what's left of their building.
Relatives lived out of their cars for a day or two before shelters opened up, including one at a large factory where he said some of his family is now staying.
Demirci said he had not yet known about Saturday's gathering in Ames.
More:100 years of earthquakes: Turkey, Syria disaster could be among this century's worst
Phillip Sitter covers education for the Ames Tribune, including Iowa State University and PreK-12 schools in Ames and elsewhere in Story County. Phillip can be reached via email at psitter@gannett.com. He is on Twitter @pslifeisabeauty.
This article originally appeared on Ames Tribune: Turkish community in Ames rallies after earthquakes, offers way to help
