Minority communities donate 200,000 liras to Soma victim families

Okan Konuralp ANKARA / Hürriyet

A man sits near graves during the funeral of a miner who died in a fire at a coal mine, at a cemetery in Soma. REUTERS Photo

Members of Turkey’s officially recognized non-Muslim communities have raised 200,000 Turkish Liras for the families of the at least 301 mine workers killed May 13 in Soma.

“The families, who lost their relatives in the terrible mine disaster, need all types of support,” Minority Community Foundations representative Laki Vingas said during a meeting at the Balat Or-Ahayim Jewish Hospital in Istanbul on May 22.

 “As the community foundations, we need to help those families. Since education is one of our most important concerns, I believe that we should raise money in order to be used for the education costs of the children of the victims,” he said.

In addition to Vingas, the president of the Balat Or-Ahayim Jewish Hospital Foundation, Yaşar Abuaf; the head of the Jewish community, İshak İbrahimzadeh; and Adnan Ertem, the head of General Directorate of Foundations (VGM) all delivered speeches during the meeting, deciding that the communities should direct their attention toward providing educational help to the families of victims.

Community foundations representatives delivered the donations collected from the communities to Ertem, to be delivered to the Prime Ministry Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD).

İbrahimzadeh said they decided to start working on a project to declare a minority community school and a school in Soma as sister schools.