South Wiltshire charity sending search and rescue team to Turkey
Serve On's been waiting for permission to deploy following the earthquake
A team of fourteen people from a South Wiltshire charity will leave for Turkey today (Thursday 9th February) to help with the rescue effort after the devastating earthquakes there.
Serve On, based in Chilmark, is sending volunteers from across the UK.
Director of Operations Dan Cooke says they wanted to go sooner but needed to get the green light:
"It's been really tough waiting for the permission so some of the larger assessment and mapping work might have been done, so that we can get used more as one of the tools to find trapped people and attempt to rescue them."
Serve On volunteers are joining responders from the European Association of Civil Protection Volunteer Teams (EVOLSAR) on the ground.
Some of them have already arrived in Turkey to assess the needs for help - Serve On's area of expertise will be to find and rescue any survivors still trapped in collapsed buildings and assess outlying areas still to be reached by other rescue teams.
Behind the scenes, the team's been ready to go since the earthquake struck early on Monday (6th February), organising technical search equipment, power tools and personal kit for deployment.
The disaster's affected Syria too, but Operations Director Dan Cooke thinks they won't be able to get there:
"We are not writing off that as an opportunity, because that's how we're designed and we think those people deserve that chance - but the chance of us getting across that border safely enough and in a timely manner is very low. So we'll probably be working in Turkey and we'll only stay for as long as we offer a benefit."
Serve On is now asking for donations to support their work in Turkey, towards the logistics of their efforts and the kit and equipment they need to carry out the mission.
You can support them via their website. serveon.org.uk
Supporters can also text SERVEON 15 to 70085 to donate ÂŁ15 - that'll cost ÂŁ15 plus a standard network rate message.
ÂŁ1, ÂŁ3, ÂŁ10 and ÂŁ20 can also be made this way, by substituting the number in the text - eg SERVEON 3