Canadian Khalsa Aid volunteers head to Turkey to join earthquake relief efforts

Two Canadian volunteers from Khalsa Aid International boarded a flight to Turkey on Thursday night to join earthquake relief efforts in the country.

Mandeep Kaur Dhunna from Halifax and Parampreet Singh Grewal from Winnipeg will join other volunteers from the organization to provide aid to the thousands displaced and in need of food and warmth following the 7.8 magnitude earthquake that hit on Feb. 6.

“It is my duty,” says Dhunna. “It’s really like I have a spirit inside and I’m super-duper — you can call it excited — to go there to help people.”

They’ll be working at two aid sites set up near Gaziantep — the epicentre of the quake.

“Once we go there, there’s a plan to add more sites, to go more into the interiors, rural areas where the aid has not reached yet,” explains Grewal.

“Mainly what our teams are into is they are providing hot meals. That’s the most important thing with what the temperatures are and people don’t have access to food.”

The group is distributing several thousand meals a day and Dhunna says she hopes to contribute to that effort as she does in her home town.

“In Halifax, everyday we cook food and serve to the shelters and also the native people and homeless people. Because I cook, this is my planning when I go there, if they need a helper in the kitchen, I would like to help there,” she says.

Grewal says they’re ready for what they expect to be an intense week ahead.

“It’s pretty dire — the temperatures are low, the houses are demolished, all the concrete [is everywhere] and people are living outside on the streets, in the tents … and we have been asked to be a little mentally prepared to deal with what the emotional aspect of that situation is.”

He adds that along with the necessities, they hope to provide some moral support for those going through unimaginable grief.

“There are people who are buried under the rubble and the relatives are sitting outside helplessly … [they] can hear voices underneath and … are not able to do anything to get them out. And there’s no hope, because the machinery and the equipment has not reached those areas,” he said. “Being there for them where nobody’s reaching, it gives a lot of comfort to the people — ‘Oh, there is someone standing by us and helping us out.'”

“The people out there who are suffering are no different from you and I,” adds Jindi Singh, National Director of Khalsa Aid Canada. “This is a natural disaster — one day they’re living normally, getting on with their lives and the next day they have this disaster. So for our volunteers, it’s always very emotional, but they’re professionals and they have to deal with what’s in front of them and provide the aid in a safe manner and also in a meaningful manner.”

Khalsa Aid was founded in 1999 and has operations in five countries worldwide, including Iraq, which allowed them to spring into action immediately in Turkey.

“Within 24 hours of the earthquake happening, our team in Iraq went across the border into Turkey with, I think it was several thousand blankets, that they started distributing immediately,” said Singh. “A lot of people were obviously unhoused, some who did have homes were too fearful to go back in because of the aftershocks, so they were sleeping out in parks. The government had started creating tent cities early on, and so we were essentially giving out blankets there within the first day or so.”

For those looking to donate, the need of the hour remains blankets, tents and sleeping bags. Singh says they expect to continue relief efforts in Turkey for quite some time.

“This is probably our third or fourth time that we’ve been to Turkey — either earthquake related or when refugees poured into Turkey and we assisted them,” he says.

“We’re here for the Turkish community. We know how much this disaster has impacted them and we’re there with them for the long term just as we’ve been in the past.”