The federal government announced Feb. 7 that it will
provide $10 million in humanitarian assistance to help the people of Turkiye (Turkey) and Syria recover from the Feb. 6 earthquake that has
reportedly killed more than 40,000 people.
On Feb. 8 the Canadian government announced that in addition it will
match individual donations made by Canadians to the Canadian Red Cross Earthquake in Türkiye and Syria Appeal from Feb. 6 to Feb. 22, 2023 up to $10 million more.
As Canadians consider where to direct their donations, they may want to consider international relief and development organizations affiliated with the EFC. Here's some information to consider.
If your church belongs to a larger denomination, you may already have a connection to a group that is already helping in the region. That's worth looking into for sure.
Many charities are part of larger groupings that work together. Here are some connections to those larger groupings:
- foodgrainsbank.ca: This grouping of 15 Christian agencies includes many EFC affiliates (e.g., Baptist, Lutheran, Alliance, Pentecostal, Evangelical Missionary, Mennonite, Nazarene, Salvation Army, Christian Reformed).
- humanitariancoalition.ca: An interfaith group of 12 international aid agencies based in Canada. Three are EFC affiliates: World Vision, Canadian Lutheran World Relief, and Canadian Foodgrains Bank (whose members are noted above).
- kentronetwork.ca/member-map: Kentro is the new name for the Canadian Christian Relief and Development Association. It has 50+ member organizations.
Another way to research is to enter terms like "Syria" and "Turkiye" (or "Turkey" or "Türkiye") at
TheEFC.ca/AffiliateSearch, which is a search engine that tries to survey the websites of our affiliate organizations. It's not working perfectly, but it's still a good place to start. The results will come back with the "All results" tab selected, but you may find clicking the "Organizations" tab more helpful.
If you find a charity that is new to you when searching anyplace online, a good idea is to check its reputation before donating. The Canadian Centre for Christian Charities has an
accreditation program where you can search the names of charities (note that browsing alphabetically can be tricky as groups with "The" as part of their official name are listed under T).
Another good idea to remember is that, while disaster responses are urgent, one of the best ways to contribute is by donating repeatedly over time to long-term development.