By Laura BennettWednesday 22 Mar 2023Hope AfternoonsSocial JusticeReading Time: 2 minutes
While the impact of the earthquakes that hit Türkiye and Syria is largely out of the headlines, there are still thousands of people in the process of rebuilding and many aid organisations continuing to lend a hand and offer physical and emotional support to the affected.
Among them is Samaritan’s Purse, who in recent weeks sent 11 Australians into the disaster zones including medical personnel, ward nurses, paramedics and a lab technician.
“Türkiye has allowed us to come in there with a hospital,” Samaritan’s Purse COO Edward Graham told Hope 103.2.
“These are hospitals that we can deploy anywhere in the world – we deployed them to Ukraine the first week of the war – [but] what you see on TV does not do it justice.
“Every building is either crumbs, or it’s so badly damaged and leaning over they’re going to bulldoze probably 90 per cent of them.
“It’s sad, it’s devastating.”
Once the teams arrive in the immediate aftermath, it’s hard to know just how long they’ll be there because the need doesn’t end when the public’s attention has been redirected.
“We’ll serve until the government of Türkiye no longer needs us and they’re able to get there feet back under them,” Edward said.
Listen to the full conversation with Edward Graham in the player above, where he also talks about the legacy of his evangelistic grandad Billy, how we can all live mission-minded and his transition from a career in the American military to one in world aid.