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Nearly a week after the deadly earthquake in southern Turkey, foreign students Abdelaziz, Ahmed Ali, Yassir and Mustafa are helping survivors of the quake in the city of Gaziantep. They say they are happy to give back to the country that has given them so much, and that they have fallen in love with.
“It is my duty to help others in this ordeal,” says Ahmed Ali, who did not even stop to think before reaching out to help the community. After the earthquake hit Gaziantep on February 6, the 25-year-old Egyptian, who had just graduated with a degree in mechanical engineering, immediately contacted his friends, who are also foreign students. Their goal? To help those in any way they could who have now lost everything.
“Some [of the volunteers] come from Egypt, others from Jordan, Syria or Iraq,” says Abdelaziz, a 23-year-old Palestinian mechanical engineering student. “After the earthquake, we decided we would help everyone.”
On the very first day after the devastating quake, Abdelaziz and Ali started collecting food with help from Yassir, an Iraqi, and Mustapha, a Syrian dentistry student they had met at Gaziantep University’s accommodation. They paid for some of the items themselves, while more food came from local shopkeepers and the Turkish authorities.
“Restaurants provided us with free soup,” says Abdelaziz. “We sometimes stop by every day, depending on what they can give us.”
“Chorba! Chorba!”
Today, Yassir’s Turkish friends, Halil and his fiancée Güler, have decided to join the small group of helpers. They have two cars and stop first at the Iraqi school Dar Alsalam, where…
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