NNA – The Dicastery for the Service of Charity is sending more medicines to Istanbul according to the Pope’s wish to offer more assistance to victims of the 6 February devastating earthquake that hit Syria and Turkey causing 50,000 deaths.
An initial dispatch departed yesterday, and more shipments are continuing today. The Turkish Embassy to the Holy See provided guidance and instructions on the most urgently needed 10,000 medicines that have been purchased.
Neighbouring Syria, devastated by the earthquake and war with 15 million people in distress, has already received financial aid from the Pope in the past thanks to the Apostolic Nunciature, which helps coordinate the process to help the population.
“We send the aid via Turkish airliners,” explains Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, the papal almoner. “We monitor the height of the pallets and their weight. This effort is possible thanks to the help of volunteers.”
Right after the earthquake in February that displaced nearly two million people in Turkey, the Dicastery for the Service of Charity sent medicines but also tinned food such as rice and tuna, thermal shirts, nappies and many other materials that can withstand the weather and even the cold. At this same time, the Prefect of the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches, Archbishop Claudio Gugerotti, began his mission in Syria and Turkey.—Vatican News
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