Cologne/Gaziantep. Malteser International is currently supporting six hospitals, a maternity and children hospital as well as eight primary health care units in the regions of Idlib and North Aleppo in northwestern Syria. The aid projects in the Syrian border region are managed from Türkiye. Oliver Hochedez, Head of Emergency Relief of Malteser International, is in constant exchange with the partners in northwestern Syria who care for the people affected by the earthquake.
"Fortunately, the hospitals we are supporting in northwestern Syria are only slightly damaged and fully operational, but there is a shortage of medical supplies, first aid kits, trauma kits and medicine. The doctors, who are working in the hospitals supported by us in northwestern Syria, have been working at their limits since Monday morning. Even before the quake, healthcare for the people in this region was critical. Now the many people who are injured have been added to this. One hundred additional operations have been performed since the earthquake," reports Oliver Hochedez, who is coordinating the relief efforts from the Turkish border town of Kilis with his emergency response team - flown in from Malteser International headquarters in Cologne on Wednesday.
The need for medical care is enormous: orthopedic aids are of particular importance for the many injured. "We are working at full speed to procure the required goods as quickly as possible. In Syria, this is still possible via the local markets," says Hochedez.
Moreover, two trucks with a total of 10 tons of relief supplies, such as beds, tents, blankets and mattresses for the affected people in Türkiye, are going out today from Hanover and Speyer in Germany. Additional transport is already in preparation. The distribution of these relief goods will be done by local organizations in Türkiye on site.
Attention editors:
Oliver Hochedez, Head of the Emergency Department at Malteser International and Katharina Kiecol, Press Officer Malteser International, are available for interviews and sound bites in Kilis.
Operator: +49 (0)221 9822-7180, kathrin.muenker(at)malteser-international.org
