Argentina’s humanitarian mission rescued three survivors of the devastating earthquake in Turkey and Syria

Just four days after landing in the Turkish city of Adana, located 922 kilometers from Istanbul and very close to the epicenter of the two devastating earthquakes that occurred on Monday February 6, the Argentine humanitarian mission made up of personnel from white helmets (belonging to the Argentine Agency for International Cooperation and Humanitarian Assistance of the Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs), with the USAR-Brigade of the Argentine Federal Police and the support of the Sinact (National Risk Management System), saved three survivors in Hatay, one of the points in Turkey that has suffered the most from the natural phenomenon which, according to local authorities, has claimed more than 35,000 lives.

The discoveries took place in the early afternoon of Wednesday February 15 and more than 200 hours after the earthquake disaster in Turkey and Syria. The survivors rescued today by the Argentinian team are two adults and a child. The operation itself was carried out in conjunction with members of the Turkish Emergency and Disaster Management Authority (AFAD) team. As the Foreign Ministry reported, the feeling of the Argentine troops is “excitement and joy in the midst of tragedy, allowing us to embrace life, solidarity and hope.”

Also the Argentine Minister of Foreign Affairs, cafe santiago, today used his account on the social network Twitter to communicate the discovery and congratulate the national team of members of the brigade for the successful work. “The Argentine humanitarian assistance mission managed to save three people alive in Hatay, the Turkish city most devastated by the earthquake. We are delighted to be able to share this news, nine days after one of the biggest disasters in the history of the region,” says Cafiero’s first message.

Then, he dedicated a few words to those responsible for the rescue: “The professionalism of our team made up of @CascosBlancos and the @PFAOficial USAR Brigade, as well as members of @AFADTurkiye, allowed us, in the midst of this tragedy, to s ‘to embrace life, solidarity and hope’.

It should be noted that the Argentine humanitarian mission, made up of 34 employees, works with a team of members of the brigade organized by the Emergency and Disaster Management Authority (AFAD, for its acronym in Turkish), under the supervision of the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Turkey. At first they were sent to the city of Adana, the fifth largest in this country, but then they were transferred to Hatay, 200 kilometers away.

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Veronique Ayalacoordinator of White Helmets Emergency Health Logistics, spoke with GlobeLiveMedia shortly after disembarking in Turkish lands and assured: “Where we work, there are reports of living people.”

“Today, as soon as we arrived, we went to one of the impact zones. Specific sites are assigned, which can be a building, a hotel, a house or a hospital. We had a particular, family building. We know that we have a difficult job ahead of us, on the one hand due to the scale of the disaster and we have to do it in a short time, and on the other hand it is complicated by the low temperatures that are recorded here and by how the structures were left,” Ayala said in dialogue with this medium.

And despite reports that various parts of Turkey have stopped searching for people trapped in the rubble, she was confident it was not too late to act. “I couldn’t say how the other contexts are, today was our first day on the pitch and there is activity, a lot of people working. And from what they told us, there are reports that there are people alive where we need to intervene. We are a combined group: there are logisticians, liaison and coordination people, interpreters and the specific search and rescue team, in which we have a buddy who has brought two canine specialists to search for people among the rubble,” he explained.

In favor of Ayala’s position, it was learned in the last hours that a 70-year-old woman had been rescued alive in Turkey 212 hours after being buried under rubble of a destroyed building in the city of Gaziantep. After an intense effort by Turkish search teams in the city of Adiyaman, Fatma Gungor70, was rescued from the ruins of a seven-storey building after being trapped for 212 hours, before being transferred to a hospital where she is receiving medical treatment, Turkish state news agency reported, Anatolia.

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As in the case of Turkey, Argentina confirmed this Monday that it will provide humanitarian aid in Syria following the series of violent earthquakes. According to information from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the offer made by the ACIAH to the Syrian Arab Republic consists of personnel specialized in logistics for the coordination of humanitarian aid; specialists in warehouse work and managing the receipt and classification of donations; sending water purifier tablets and disinfectants to meet water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) needs together with the trainers so that the population learns how to use these supplies; the dispatch of a light urban search and rescue (USAR) brigade; the donation of specific medicines and medical supplies for this type of disaster and specialists in the management and management of camps and shelters.

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