As you will be aware, the The Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) have launched the Turkey and Syria appeal.
There are reports of local groups gathering items to send to people in Turkey and Syria. As you may know, donated goods are not usually the best solution (huge effort to sort out what is useable, difficult to export, potentially unsafe for inexperienced people doing deliveries into dangerous areas, unclear routes to deliver goods, changing needs, environmental impact of dumped goods etc) – this is explained more here Donating and managing goods | Ready Scotland
The following are lines from the Ready.Scot/Humanitarian, please feel free to share this information through your communication networks/alert systems.
- The Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) have launched an appeal to support people in Turkey and Syria. This brings together 15 leading aid charities from across the UK to raise funds quickly and efficiently.
- Money is normally the most useful donation you can make, particularly when giving to charities with experience of operating in crisis zones. As well as enabling aid organisations to get essential aid to people directly in crises zones, it will also help the people fleeing conflict and danger to get exactly what they need, when they need it, no matter where they are and will support the local economy. This is particularly the case in a fast moving humanitarian crisis.
- The needs in a humanitarian crisis are constantly shifting, and donated goods are not usually the best solution. It can take a lot of resources to manage, sort, and dispose of unneeded items in countries which are providing emergency support. But if your community has already gathered items, and now find that you can’t distribute them as you had first intended, you may want to consider alternative ways to distribute the items so they are used in a positive way. Find out more at Donating and managing goods | Ready Scotland
- Advice is available on Ready.Scot/Humanitarian to help people provide humanitarian support by making donations and volunteering in a safe and effective way.
