Turkish Red Crescent brings humanitarian aid for over 140 years

Turkish Red Crescent Director-General Tekin Küçükali said even though the charity organization dates back many years, it is not an old organization, but an organization that is continuously renewing itself. Speaking to Sunday’s Zaman, Küçükali noted that they are a conduit of compassion. “I participated in a conference in Balıkesir on Friday, addressing university students. The students collected TL 995 for the people of Elazığ, who were hit by a magnitude 6.0 earthquake in March. Some people may be thinking that TL 995 is a small figure; however, while I was accepting the money, I was very happy. As long as volunteers exist, we will continue to be the flagship of social solidarity throughout the world,” Küçükali noted.

Uğur Demirbaş, a psychologist working for the Turkish Red Crescent, said he understands what helplessness is and what difficult situations people are faced with through his work at the charitable organization. After Demirbaş graduated from the psychology department of Ankara’s Hacettepe University in 2001, he started to work in a hospital in the Black Sea province of Ordu. However Demirbaş then decided to switch jobs to the charitable organization to help more needy people.

Demirbaş went to Haiti after a devastating earthquake struck the impoverished country on Jan. 12, to provide disaster relief with a Red Crescent rescue team under his leadership. Demirbaş says after they landed to Haiti they were shocked by the awful landscape there. The 7.0 magnitude earthquake killed thousands of people, injuring many more and burying many under toppled buildings. “Haiti was in terrible condition because of the earthquake. The streets were full of dead bodies, and many people needed help. National rescue teams were overwhelmed by quake victims. While we were providing medical support and humanitarian aid, I understood that taking people’s hands, giving them tissues to dry their tears and smiling are critically important for them,” Demirbaş said.

No matter race or language, pain is the same everywhere

Many experts believe that experiencing and surviving an earthquake turns people’s psychology upside-down. Demirbaş works with those who have been most affected by the earthquake, especially children. Demirbaş said singing songs and playing games with the children are the first steps in psychosocial support. Stating that they are working to prevent quake victims’ trauma from building on itself, Demirbaş noted that no matter people’s race, religion or ethnicity, the pain of all human beings is the same everywhere.

“While we were giving Haitian victims psychological support, we asked children to draw a picture. We think boys generally draw pictures of cars even though girls prefer to draw pictures of babies. However, nearly all children in Haiti drew pictures of houses, which is the best indicator of their biggest dreams,” Demirbaş pointed out. Demirbaş added that the Turkish Red Crescent has not left Haiti alone in its disaster recovery process, underlining that the organization will extend a helping hand to all vulnerable people throughout the world forever to protect human dignity.

İbrahim Balcıoğlu, from the psychiatry department at the İstanbul University School of Medicine, said trauma can be caused by a wide variety of events with a few common aspects. Balcıoğlu links psychological trauma to events including earthquakes, wars, droughts and famine. “Any person may experience depression; however, the number of people who have psychological trauma increases markedly when an earthquake, flood or war happens.” Balcıoğlu added that people need psychological support especially during these kinds of tragic events.

Efforts being continued to improve blood safety

The Turkish Red Crescent first started its blood donation programs in İstanbul and Ankara in 1957. A campaign titled “One million good people are being sought,” launched in 2007, aimed to find 1 million blood donors in the country. Küçükali said the campaign had brought in 1,025,000 blood donors by the end of September 2009. The institution reports 2009 saw an increase of 30 percent in blood donations as public awareness has been increased via various campaigns.