When Earth & Hearts Quake
It is Monday, February 6, the small hours of the night near Gaziantep. Mrs. Şahin, 67, is praying her night vigil prayers (tahajjud) when suddenly the earth beneath her begins to rumble. She rushes to wake her husband, Bedir, and their son, whose two-story house they live in is now swaying above and below them.
As catastrophe quakes beneath their feet, they escape. Nothing of their lives but the night garments they wear remains.
In an instant, Bedir Şahin, 75, and his wife, in their 48th year of marriage, lost everything. They had worked hard all their lives, raised six children, and retired to the care of their son. Bedir suffers from the lung ailment COPD and was suddenly without his oxygen mechanism and medications.
That’s when Ceylan Tekin Köse and Miraç Atalay, two Zakat Foundation Gaziantep Office aid specialists, heard of the elderly couple’s special needs and circumstances.
They searched for them, and when they found them immediately relocated them to a special-built temporary frame lodge in our Adıyaman Tent Village. Zakat Foundation of America built these frame dwellings as part of the Tent Village precisely to accommodate people with special needs, like Mr. and Mrs. Şahin.
It was your gifts that sheltered Mr. and Mrs. Şahin and restored Mr. Bedir’s oxygen breathing regulator and medicines. With frame lodges and Tent Village fully wired for electricity, Mr. Şahin resumed his treatments, and the couple had lodging that better accommodated their conditions and needs.
Ceylan and Miraç regularly check in on Mr. and Mrs. Şahin. Their health is good. Their special needs met. They await the restoration of their son’s home. The Zakat Foundation assistance they receive, like their prayers of gratitude, flow to your Mizan, the Divine Balance awaiting us all Hereafter.
“How grateful we are for the care of Zakat Foundation of America and its generous donors. We thank all of you, those here in Türkiye, and wherever you are, with God’s blessings.”