Dubai: Relief volunteers prepare 50,000 aid boxes for quake-ravaged Turkey, Syria

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Within just two hours, 2,000 volunteers skilfully packed 1,800 boxes of aid for the quake-ravaged countries, Turkey and Syria, at the World Trade Centre in Dubai on Monday.

As a part of the UAE's continuous efforts to respond to the devastating earthquake that struck Syria and Turkey last month, the humanitarian campaign 'Bridges of Giving', organised by the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives in collaboration with The Emirates Red Crescent (ERC), and other partnering UAE humanitarian and charitable organisations, is gathering and assembling relief supplies that will be sent for people who were adversely impacted by the natural calamity.

Volunteers of different nationalities dressed in brown vests started preparing relief and aid packages with visible gusto at Dubai’s World Trade Centre today.

Sara Al Nuaimi, Director of The Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives (MBRGI) said, “We have over 2,000 volunteers with us. Today we have different aid items, mainly food, clothing, grocery supplies, medicines and toys for children as well."

His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE, has ordered an aid package totaling US$100 million for earthquake relief in Syria and Turkey, with the aid being divided equally between the two countries.

The powerful 7.8 magnitude earthquake in February rocked wide swaths of Turkey and neighbouring Syria, killing more than 50,000 people and injuring thousands more as it toppled thousands of buildings and trapped residents under mounds of rubble.