Texas Baptist Men sending aid to Turkey and Syria

Texas Baptist Men collecting blankets for earthquake victims

Just a day after a second earthquake jolted Turkey, Texas Baptist Men launched two separate efforts to offer relief in the region.

DALLAS - Volunteers with the Texas Baptist Men will soon be on the ground in Turkey helping people in the disaster zone.

A team of five men from North Texas left Tuesday morning to help in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake that killed thousands of people.

"These folks are ready to go, willing to go and they go, and they make a big difference," said David Hardage, a spokesman for the Texas Baptist Men.

They will help set up two portable filtration systems. The machines will be able to provide clean water for more than 26,000 people a day.

"It may be the biggest need they have right now. After all the buildings fell, the infrastructure underneath the ground also was really disrupted. So, we’re sending two of these water filtration purification systems and they’ll be able to provide fresh clean water for about 25,000 people a day. And in addition to that, they’re going to buy materials, build more of these and train the Turkish people how to use them so hopefully in a couple of weeks water may be provided for maybe several hundred thousand people every day. And that’s a huge need," Hardage said.

CONTINUED COVERAGE:

Death toll in Turkey passes 35,000

It's been a week since two massive earthquakes hit the Turkey-Syria border region, and the situation is getting worse. Survivors are doing their best to cope with homelessness and a lack of basic supplies.

Texas Baptist Men has also collected a thousand blankets to send to the earthquake victims in Syria.

Hardage said in addition to keeping people warm, the blankets have a symbolic message.

"They don’t have electricity, they need blankets. All that’s true. But for us, sending these blankets is kind of our way of putting our arms around them and saying there are folks out there that you don’t know but that really do care about you. And this is a tangible expression of that care," he said.

For more information or to donate a $10 blanket, visit tbmtx.org.