![Search and rescue efforts continue on collapsed building after 7.4 magnitude earthquake hits Diyarbakir, Turkiye on February 06, 2023. [Aydın Arik - Anadolu Agency]](jpg/aa-20230206-30188764-30188757-earthquakes_jolts_turkiyes_provincesc032.jpg)
The United Kingdom has taken the lead in supporting the appeal for victims of the deadly earthquakes in Turkiye six months ago, with donations from the country's population reaching over £150 million.
According to the Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC), a UK-based umbrella group for charities, announced this week that donations to aid the victims of the February 6th earthquakes have reached £151.8 million, an amount which includes the £5 million matched by the British government through the Aid Match scheme.
The earthquakes and their aftershocks during the first week of February this year killed around 60,000 people across southern Turkiye and north-west Syria, destroying thousands of homes and causing severe infrastructural damage.
While donations flooded in and continue to do so from countries and their populations throughout the world, the figure of over £150 million puts the UK in a leading role in that provision of aid.
READ: Prisoners in UK raise funds for victims of Turkiye earthquakes
The chief executive of the DEC, Saleh Saeed, told the PA Media news agency that the "British public have been incredibly generous to the appeal…This is going a long way to help the survivors with the essentials, with providing healthcare, psychosocial support, physiotherapy, cash vouchers so people can buy food and the things they want, the distribution of hygiene kits, kitchen sets, dignity kits."
He stressed "We have to remember that lots of people lost everything in the earthquake so the aid is going sometimes on the basics, for essential items that help people recover and help people survive."
According to Saeed, the figure has "really placed the UK as a leadership country when it comes to responding on the back of millions of people wanting to stand in solidarity, whether it's Ukraine, whether it's Turkey and Syria or the recent Pakistan floods and so forth."
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