A world away, MassBay students rally to help victims of massive quake in Turkey

WELLESLEY — On Feb. 6, a massive earthquake — 7.8 on the Richter scale — struck southern Turkey and Syria, followed by a 7.5 magnitude quake just hours later about 60 miles away. Nearly 50,000 Turkish and Syrian citizens were killed, and entire cities were leveled.

And on the other side of the world, Demet Yildirim, a Turkish native and student at MassBay Community College, felt helpless.

Yildirim was born and raised in Turkey, growing up in Adıyaman and attending college in the province of Hatay, both areas hard hit by the earthquakes (on Monday, still another quake, this one at 6.4 magnitude, rocked the Hatay province). Yildirim reported that her parents' home was destroyed, leaving them on the street, and four of her friends from university have been killed.

“I talked to my family, they are staying outside right now in the cold and they are still feeling aftershocks of the earthquake,” Yildirim said. “They are telling me that people are going to have to decide where they are going to die, either outside in the cold, or in their home if the building collapses.”

Yildirim came to the United States four years ago to learn English, and has been taking engineering courses at MassBay since last year. When the first earthquake hit Turkey at about 4 a.m. local time, Yildirim was following along in Massachusetts. Knowing that her friends and family were in the area hit hardest, she waited for an agonizing amount of time trying to determine whether they were safe.

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“I first heard about the earthquake from one of my friends who lives in Gaziantep who told me there was an earthquake," Yildirim said. "I reached out to my family, didn’t hear back for one or two hours. With my friends, I didn’t reach them for days. The phones didn’t work, it was such a hard situation for me, I just waited and hoped for people to get back to me. I was going on Twitter asking people if they had seen or knew any information about my friends.”

While Yildirim eventually heard her parents were OK, although their home was destroyed, unfortunate news about some of her friends soon began to trickle in.

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“One friend lost their entire family," Yildirim said. "Her father worked through my university, I knew the entire family and they were so nice and helpful to students. Hatay is not my hometown, so I would go to their house and they would be so nice. I'd have food there and sometimes I stayed over while I was in Hatay.”

Up until Monday's follow-up quake, there had been more than 2,000 aftershocks from the original, according to the Turkish government. The peak magnitude of 7.8 tied it for the second strongest earthquake in Turkish history. The quake destroyed buildings throughout southern and central Turkey, as well as northern Syria, leading to mass homelessness and an estimated $84.1 billion in damages in Turkey, Bloomberg reported.

MassBay community pitches in

The devastation has created a huge need for food, clothing and other items for people in Turkey and Syria who are now homeless.

“Downtown is destroyed," Yildirim said. "They don’t have any place to work, they don’t have any place to stay. They will need a minimum of three months (to get back to normal) they need food and clothes. They don’t even have toilets to use."

Yildirim, who lives in Brookline, is a member of MassBay’s International Student Club, which has helped organize a drive at the Wellesley campus to collect items for victims. Everything from non-perishable food items, to clothing, to key homeless items like sleeping bags, is being accepted by the club, which is running a table and collection bin at the campus’ cafeteria area.

The drive is collaborating with a Turkish market in Medford, Freerange Market, which is working with the Turkish consulate to get supplies to Turkey. Yildirim said Friday that they had been able to fill two trucks over the previous week.

“The support from everyone at MassBay has been amazing,” she said.

While she is roughly 5,300 miles from home, Yildirim has found a diverse group of support in her fellow international students, many of whom can sympathize with being away from home during difficult periods.

“International students can understand the pain that you feel when something is going on back home with your family,” said Joel Yate, a Framingham resident and native of Ivory Coast (also Côte d'Ivoire), as he manned the donation bin Friday during lunch at MassBay. “It’s very hard when something is going on in your country and you can’t be there to help.”

“It’s really fulfilling to see everyone work together," added Paulina Guerra, an Ecuador native now living in Ashland who is president of the International Club. "I know when something is going on back in my country and how hard it is, and it’s good to help someone that is in that similar situation. It’s been great to see the students in the International Club, not only helping out but spreading the word in classes about the donation bin.”

This article originally appeared on MetroWest Daily News: MassBay Community College students aid Turkey earthquake victims