The earthquake and aftershocks that struck Southern Turkey and North Western Syria on 6th February caused the deaths of at least forty thousand people. Massive devastation affecting millions of men, women and children means those who have survived have lost everything.

The Water Survival Box charity, founded by the Rotary Club of Chelwood Bridge, is already in touch with three Turkish and Syrian in-country teams of international non-Government partners. Last week, CEO Ravi Singh and a team from Khalsa Aid International reached the disaster area in Turkey and confirmed the urgent need for the Water Survival Boxes (WSBs) that are provided across the world to areas suffering from the aftermath of disasters. A consignment of two hundred boxes left the warehouse on Westfield Industrial Estate on Wednesday, 15th February for the British Airways cargo depot, ready for a direct flight from Heathrow to Turkey on Thursday. These boxes will provide for at least one thousand survivors and help them begin to rebuild their shattered lives.

The need for clean water solutions has already been established and the WSB trustees aim to provide at least one thousand of their standard WSBs in the coming weeks. Each box is designed to provide essential survival items for a family of five and includes vital tools to convert contaminated water into safe drinking water.

The Grifaid Family Filter supplied can provide 200,000 litres of safe water – sufficient for each family member to have twenty litres each day for five years. The cost of each box is just £150 and will help avoid unnecessary illness and potential fatalities through drinking contaminated water.

On Thursday, The Journal visited their packing facility on the Westfield Industrial Estate. Volunteers from Portishead Rotary Club and the Inner Wheel Club of Burnham-on-Sea were working hard to get the next lot of boxes out to Turkey and Syria.

Founder, Chairman and Trustee, Hugo Pike OBE, explained the situation at the warehouse: “At the moment, packing arrangements are in hand through to the end of March. Local Rotary and Inner Wheel clubs are coming to help out with our efforts here at Broadway House. These groups help us massively - not just with packing - but also with raising money, going out on the streets and ‘rattling the tins’”.

"Members of the public know that if they put the money into Rotary, it will be properly spent, it will go to the case in hand. Currently, of course, it’s all about the disaster in Turkey and Syria. It’s the worst disaster that I can recollect in the last seventeen years that we’ve been operating."

"We’ve responded to around seventy five to eighty disasters over the years, and sent out twenty five thousand of our water survival boxes to families who have been caught up in these disasters."

"The key content in the box is the water pump, which is vital to prevent people getting sick through disease, which is a big problem in this disaster situation".

“Any money that comes to us, certainly in the short term, will be dedicated to getting aid to Syria and Turkey. The first consignment of two hundred boxes left Heathrow on a British Airways flight Thursday, straight into Turkey. Our plan is to be sending another two hundred boxes within the next two weeks or so. Then, as long as the funds come in to enable us to pack more boxes, we will do so.”

"As far as helping us is concerned; I think the best thing the general public can do is help swell the funds to pay for the boxes, their contents and the air freight to get them where they need to go."

The charity has also helped in other global aid operations recently, including the ongoing situation in Ukraine. A number of boxes are waiting to be sent out to Somalia due to another disaster, too. All of their current operations can be seen on the website.

The Water Survival Box charity has launched an urgent appeal for donations. To fulfill their initial target of one thousand boxes, the team will need to raise £150,000. Donations which can be gift-aided, can be made via the Water Survival Box website or by cheque made out to Water Survival Box Limited. Cheques should be sent to their registered address at:

Broadway House,

Third Avenue,

Westfield Industrial Estate,

Midsomer Norton

Radstock

BA3 4XD

Tony Quinn, Director of Operations at Water Survival Box urged: “It’s very simple really - we need donations. We’ve committed to one thousand boxes, which is going to cost us £150,000 to buy the stock and arrange the flights. Any donation large or small would be gratefully received”.

Watch the video appeal from Hugo Pike, OBE, below: