Wisma Putra launches donation campaign for Turkiye, Syria quake victims

PUTRAJAYA: The Foreign Affairs Ministry (Wisma Putra) has started a donation campaign through its Foreign Affairs' Calamity Fund to help victims of the earthquake disaster that struck Turkey, Syria and neighbouring countries.

The campaign starts from Friday (Feb 10) till Feb 23.

Wisma Putra, in a statement on Friday, explained that the fund, which was founded in 2006, strives to gather and coordinate donations from Malaysians to aid victims of natural disasters around the world.

"This noble effort continues, thanks to the compassion and spirit of Malaysia Madani, by collecting humanitarian funds to help the earthquake victims."

"The ministry welcomes the public, corporate and business groups and non-governmental organisations to channel donations through the fund. Contributions made are eligible to be claimed as income tax deductions under Subsection 44(6) of the Income Tax Act (ITA) 1967," added the statement.

Donations can be made through:

Account Name: Ministry of Foreign Affairs Disaster Fund

Bank: Affin Islamic Bank Berhad, Putrajaya

Account Number: 1054 9000 0599

For record and receipt purposes, donation details should be included via the link: tinyurl.com/yck9tnen.

Any further questions can be submitted to the fund secretariat via email [e-mail].

According to the latest official figures, more than 16,540 people have been killed and 66,130 others injured in 10 provinces of Turkiye so far, following two strong earthquakes of magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 that jolted the country's southern region on Monday.

Neighbouring Syria was also affected by the strong earthquake with 1,347 people reported dead and more than 2,295 injured.

Cyprus and Lebanon also felt the effects of the earthquakes.

Turkiye has declared a three-month state of emergency in 10 provinces namely Adana, Adıyaman, Diyarbakir, Gaziantep, Hatay, Kahramanmaras, Kilis, Malatya, Osmaniye and Sanliurfa, to ensure the smooth running of search and rescue (SAR) missions. – Bernama