Pakistani-origin doctors in US raise $0.36million for Turkiye earthquake victims in online telethon

WASHINGTON – Pakistan has been at the forefront of providing rescue assistance to earthquake-hit Turkiye and now Pakistani-American doctors raised $365,000 for quake victims, who are battling extreme weather after widespread destruction.

Several members of the Association of Physicians of Pakistani Descent of North America (APPNA) joined an online telethon and raised the amount for the earthquake response.

Pakistan's envoy to the US, Masood Khan, and Turkish ambassador Hasan Murat Mercan attended the session and briefed the participants about the earthquake. During the online session, the Association of Physicians of Pakistani Descent of North America offered to send a medical mission to quake-hit region to support relief efforts.

Masood Khan appealed Pakistani community in the US and other nations to come forward to provide relief to the Turkish people who suffered the worst calamity of the century as the death toll climbed up to 46,000.

Thank you Ambassador Hassan Murat Mercan for joining Pakistani-American doctors @APPNA zoom telethon for raising funds for earthquake response in Türkiye. Thank you Dr. Arshad Rehan, President APPNA for organising the telethon and for raising more than $365,000.@TurkishEmbassy pic.twitter.com/zsfQY5GEo4

— Masood Khan (@Masood__Khan) February 20, 2023

On this occasion, the Turkish envoy thanked the Pakistani government and nationals for their generous support.

Earlier, an unidentified Pakistan national has won hearts after he donated a whooping amount of $30 million in the US for victims of deadly earthquake in Turkiye and Syria.

The person walked into the Turkish Embassy in the United States where he handed over the amount for relief activities days after Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif urged Pakistani to come forward for the help of victims in Turkiye and Syria where death toll from Monday’s earthquake has surpassed 24,000. Hopes of rescuing many more survivors are fading away, amid cold weather after the disaster.