On October 23rd, an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.2 hit Van and Ercis, two very impoverished areas in the east most side of Turkey. These areas are also frequent targets terrorist attacks by the PKK and experiences the
brunt of the Kurdish-Turkish conflict. This earthquake killed over 600 people, left thousands homeless and starving and an overwhelming amount of buildings and infrastructure in ruins.
With the collaboration of Project Nur and the Department of Community Service, Rozi Levi ’13, a Turkey native, in response to this catastrophic event.
“I felt very uneasy about not being able to do anything. I was thinking about what to do but then I realized what am I going to do? Am I going to go there? A few of my friends suggested that I raise money,” Levi said
“Our community has been very open in helping out, like the fundraising for Haiti, and raising awareness while educating the Brandeis community about the culture, which really inspired me in doing something about it.”
In the coming weeks the Turkish Student Association (TSA) will be tabling wristbands and selling bakery items such as Baklava, where they will also be accepting donations. In conjunction with Project Nur, TSA is also
discussing having a concert next semester in Slosberg where all of the proceeds will be donated to the Turkish Red Crescent, AKUT Search and Rescue foundation of Turkey and the through Turkish philanthropic fund based in the US.
For other ‘Deisans interested in getting involved, you can vist the TSA homepage at http://people.brandeis.edu/~turkiye/or visit Brandeis.edu and join the TSA-Brandeis list serve. There are also weekly meetings on Mondays from 8-9 pm. If you have more questions you can contact Rozi Levi at rozilevi@gmail.comor Aziz Sohail’13 with Project Nur at aaziz@brandeis.edu.
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at Brandeis chapter.