Duzce: A nine-year-old boy in Turkey, who survived an earthquake last year, has donated his pocket money to have a hand in relief efforts for his peers in the wake of Monday's devastating earthquakes in southern Turkey.
Alparslan Efe Demir was heartbroken when he saw the destruction caused by the two powerful quakes in southern Turkey on television.
It was only a couple of months ago that Demir had to live in the tents set up by Turkey's Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) for a while after a magnitude 5.9 earthquake hit the northwestern Duzce province in November.
Sick at heart for people going through tough times, the boy told his mother Sinem Demir that he wanted to send the money in his piggy bank to his peers.
The mother and son visited the Duzce branch of the Turkish Red Crescent and handed over his pocket money to the authorities for them to deliver it to his peers in need. The boy moved the Red Crescent employees to tears with the letter he wrote for the earthquake survivors.
It is okay if I do not buy chocolate here. Children there should not be cold or hungry. I will send my clothes and toys to the children there
"I was very scared when there was an earthquake in Duzce. I had the same fear when I heard about the earthquake in many of our cities. That is why I decided to send the pocket money given by my elders to the children there," he said.
"It is okay if I do not buy chocolate here. Children there should not be cold or hungry. I will send my clothes and toys to the children there," he said in his emotional letter.
Early Monday morning, a 7.7 magnitude tremor struck southern Turkey's Kahramanmaras province, then about nine hours later, a 7.6 magnitude quake hit rocked the same region, affecting several other provinces, including Adana, Adiyaman, Diyarbakir, Gaziantep, Hatay, Kilis, Malatya, Osmaniye, and Sanliurfa.
Thousands of buildings were toppled, hospitals and schools wrecked and tens of thousands of people were injured or left homeless in several Turkish and Syrian cities.
In Turkey, the death toll had climbed to 3,419 people by Tuesday morning, Vice President Fuat Oktay said. In Syria, the death toll stood at just over 1,600, according to the government and a rescue service in the insurgent-held northwest.
