Canadian Khalsa Aid International Volunteers Head to Turkey to Assist Relief Efforts

Khalsa Aid International volunteers have flown to Turkey to join earthquake relief efforts. Mandeep Kaur Dhunna from Halifax and Parampreet Singh Grewal from Winnipeg will be working at two aid sites set up near Gaziantep. Dhunna said she is very excited to go there and help people.

On Thursday night, two Khalsa Aid International volunteers departed for Turkey to assist in relief efforts post the earthquakes that rocked the country, as well as Syria. Mandeep Kaur Dhunna from Halifax and Parampreet Singh Grewal from Winnipeg are excited to join the volunteers in Turkey. They will be working at two aid sites set up near Gaziantep which was the epicenter of the earthquake.

According to Grewal, there is a plan to add more sites so that help can be provided to the rural areas. “Mainly what our teams are into is they are providing hot meals. That’s the most important thing with what the temperatures are and people don’t have access to food,” he said.

Dhunna shared, “It is my duty. It’s really like I have a spirit inside and I’m super-duper — you can call it excited — to go there to help people.”

As part of Khalsa Aid International, the volunteers provide several thousand meals a day to people in need. The volunteers hope to provide similar services to the people in Turkey whose homes have been destroyed.

Grewal also stated that he understands what the condition is in Turkey but believes providing air is necessary. “There are people who are buried under the rubble and the relatives are sitting outside helplessly … [they] can hear voices underneath and … are not able to do anything to get them out. And there’s no hope because the machinery and the equipment has not reached those areas.”

Khalsa Aid was founded in 1999 and has operations in five countries worldwide, including Iraq. The Iraq team responded for help within 24 hours of the earthquake and started helping by distributing several thousand blankets.

Vineet Washington