GOAL, the Irish based international humanitarian organization, has announced that 26 of its staff have lost their lives in the Turkey-Syria earthquake.
Teams are still working around the clock to account for a number of staff still unaccounted for while also supporting the overall search and rescue mission.
The death toll from the horror quake now stands at 21,000.
There have been some glimmers of hope as a small number of survivors were recovered from the rubble yesterday, four days on from Monday’s 7.8 magnitude earthquake.
However, with freezing conditions nightly, the number of survivors is dwindling.
“To say it has been a profoundly difficult week for the GOAL Teams in Türkiye and Syria cannot be overstated. Because of the sheer geography of destruction, and GOAL’s long-term presence in the communities so severely impacted, the scale of loss is far beyond anything we could have ever imagined” says CEO, Siobhan Walsh.
GOAL staff across the region have also lost family members, sustained life-altering injuries, and lost their homes. Meanwhile, as part of GOAL’s humanitarian response to support communities most affected by the earthquake, teams in Türkiye and Syria have mobilised responses to assess needs on the ground, whilst prioritising the immediate restarting of key humanitarian aid programmes that deliver shelter, access to food, clean water and health and social support.
GOAL’s global team of 3,500 personnel across 14 countries are today united as one as they support their heartbroken colleagues in Türkiye and Syria. Never in the organisation’s history, has GOAL experienced the loss of colleagues on such a scale.
GOAL Turkey & Syria Earthquake Appeal: https://www.goalglobal.org/turkey-syria-earthquake-appeal/