TROY, Mich. (WXYZ) — As the death toll in Syria and Turkey climbs to over 20,000 people following a catastrophic earthquake, loved ones in the United States and in Metro Detroit are urgently pleading for help.
The American Syrian Arab Cultural Association (ASACA) based in Troy is raising funds for American and UN-affiliated aid organizations, while also demanding that international politics don’t interfere with help on the ground.
As heartbreaking images of a devastating earthquake make their way around the world, Syrian Americans worry for their families caught in the rubble.
“I started my communication with them after the earthquake took place,” said Sam Youness with ASACA.
Youness lives in Metro Detroit and moved to the US from Syria in 1988. A relative back home was in her home during the earthquake that brought her building to the ground.
“She was pulled out of the rubble. She was lucky," Youness said. "Nobody else from her 9-story building survived.”
Youness and the ASACA have been raising funds for US aid organizations, and also are asking the US to ease sanctions on Syria, starting a petition online.
“Our aim is to help the people there, they’re in dire need," Youness said. "They’ve been under so much stress for so many years.”
The US government says they haven’t spoken to the Syrian government since the disaster, but are sending in aid through other groups.
“We're a leading provider of humanitarian assistance to Syria. To the Syrian people, not the government," said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken during a media briefing on Wednesday. "Working through these partners, we’re trying to make sure the assistance is getting where it’s needed.”
Other Syrian Americans like Qutaiba Idlbi, who moved to the US from Syria in 2013, say US sanctions aren’t preventing aid. Idlbi is Head of the Syria Program at the Atlantic Council, an international affairs think tank based in Washington D.C.
Idlbi believes US sanctions on Syria should remain in place but says the conflict has created just one approved crossing for aid into Syria. That crossing is now hard to travel, having been damaged by the earthquake.
"If the current crisis is an indication of anything, it’s that the current cross-border system is not working," Idlbi said. "We can't just depend on one border crossing to send aid in, and one very vulnerable border crossing.”
As Syrian Americans continue to watch the devastating images emerge, they only hope that humanity prevails over politics.
“We can't wait really for governments and political calculations to really decide the fate for thousands of people who have suddenly been buried under the rubble of their own homes,” Idlbi said. "There needs to be a political will to say we need to save those people. It is our humanitarian obligation, it is our American obligation to do so.”
“Anything that can be sent there, that can make it there, no matter where in Syria can be of great aid to the people,” Youness said.
ASACA is appealing for donations to 3 different US and UN-affiliated organizations: Saint Rita Foundation For Children, an American Non-Profit Organization. MedGlobal, an American Non-Profit Organization. UNHCR, United Nation High Commissioner for Refugees
