Turkey earthquake: Gloucestershire CEO leads fundraising

The CEO of a construction services firm has travelled back to his home city in Turkey to deliver aid personally after the recent devastating earthquakes.

Brusk Korkmaz, who runs Hercules Site Services in Gloucestershire, has also led a fundraising campaign which has raised almost £18,000.

He grew up in Iskenderun that was hit by the quake, and has friends and family who are now homeless.

Mr Korkmaz said he witnessed people's "desperate" need when he arrived.

"We hired a minibus and filled it up with food, tents, electricity-powered heaters, coats and medicine and we started distributing in the evening.

"Basically it took seconds for us to distribute because so many people need desperate help here."

As well as collecting much-needed items, staff at Hercules have been running a JustGiving page which they hope will hit £20,000 by the weekend.

Operations director Andreas Gottfried, who is one of a team of people back in Gloucestershire helping with the aid effort, said: "What people need out there is tents. They need clothes, it's cold over there at the moment.

"So we are collecting things like that and getting them across to Turkey."

Mr Gottfried, who said Hercules staff and clients had donated items and money, said he had been in constant touch with Mr Korkmaz.

"I think it's definitely impacted him. Seeing his hometown, the place he grew up, has really hit home.

"He's doing absolutely everything he can to help the people over there."

Meanwhile, a kebab van manager has also been raising money to send to people left homeless by the earthquake.

Nazif Yurf works at Oscars Kebab Van in Quedgeley and has been collecting donations from customers.

He comes from Adiyaman, in south east Turkey, which was hit by tremors after the earthquakes on 6 February in Gaziantep and Kahramanmaras.

Mr Yurf said it had left a number of his friends without shelter.

"I struggle to contact my friends, but when I did manage to get through, they said they needed help so badly," he said.

"They need food and water, and they have no electric or gas.

"Some of my friends have children and they have been left completely homeless after their houses were destroyed," added Mr Yurf.

A Gloucestershire councillor has also helped to organise two aid lorries full of supplies for those in need of help in Turkey.

Alistair Chambers has been working with resident Sahin Tuncel to organise donated items and the councillor is part of the team driving the lorries across Europe.

They are heading to Gaziantep where they will link-up with the Red Crescent Charity to help distribute the aid to where it is needed most.

Mr Chambers said volunteers would aim to spend two days there helping with aid.

"We are fortunate to have three ex-military drivers transporting the vehicle, including Dave Stewart, who helped deliver aid to the Ukraine conflict with me," he added.

More than 41,000 people are known to have died in Turkey and Syria and the UK's Disasters Emergency Committee (DEC) has launched an aid appeal for an estimated 17m people, many in urgent need of shelter, food and medical support.

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