“Devastation and Cold”
Sulaymaniyah, Iraq, Nov. 20—For three days, they lay buried under tons of rubble. Then it happened. Digging search and rescue workers pulled a baby boy from the cradling arms of his Kurdish mother.
He lives! The cry of hope went up.
Then they looked…and fell silent. His mother, shielding him with her body, had given him even her last breath.
“The most beautiful thing God gives to women is the love of protecting their children,” said one.
“May God have mercy on this mother who protected her child till the end,” said another.
The destruction from the 7.3 magnitude Iran-Iraq earthquake—the deadliest of the year—is staggering.
530 dead
9,397 injured
12,000 buildings damaged in eight cities
526 villages critically impaired
So reports the European Commission on Humanitarian Aid
Zakat Foundation of America workers are already carrying your generous aid to 1,000 victims—blankets, coats, sweaters, warming clothing—to the cold and quake-stricken of Sulaymaniyah in northeast Iraq.
We need to winter-ready and provide emergency aid to thousands more. Please rush your life-saving winter help to those who have lost loved ones, home, possessions, clothing—everything.
Even sadder, the quake devastated Iraq’s already twice afflicted—its Internally Displaced People (IDPs), the long-captive in Mosul, who fled the carnage of blistering war as destitute refugees.
Then the temblor struck—so powerful and close to the earth’s surface, it tore through western Iran, eastern Iraq and rippled south to Qatar and Kuwait, north into Turkey, and west through Palestine to the Mediterranean, 660 miles away, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
Many, mostly neglected Mosul IDPs, had taken up shelter in unreinforced cement or brick buildings—structures that become deadly tombs when a magnitude 7 earthquake strikes.
…And frigid winter looms.Won’t you warm your devastated and exposed brothers and sisters?
$50 provides a bundle of warm clothing—coats, sweaters, heavy pants and blankets—for a family of five
$250 gives three families clothing and winter critical supplies
$1,000 outfits 10 families with winter essentials and furnishes life-saving aid
Please give generously to the widows, orphans, and dispossessed of war and natural disaster.
