Coat, blanket drive receives nearly 700 area donations

4:03 p.m., Dec. 15, 2015--A recent coat and blanket drive raised nearly 700 donations to support Syrian refugees living in tent cities in Turkey, with about half the donations coming from the University of Delaware community. 

The drive--organized by the UD Graduate Student Government and Rumi Forum, a graduate student organization--was held from Nov. 10-Dec. 5 with the aid of American Turkish Friendship Association (ATFA-DE). 

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The effort was aimed at helping the Syrian refugees who survived a catastrophic civil war in their country. During this war, half of the country -- about 4 million people -- escaped, and more than 2 million people are now struggling to survive in tent cities in Turkey. 

Donations from the UD community included 86 blankets, 125 coats, 52 items of clothing and 86 small items. These donations, along with others from the Newark area, were delivered to a central drop-off location in Virginia. Paxton Companies is transporting them to Norfolk, Virginia, at no charge, and, with the cooperation of the Maersk Line, more than 55,000 items donated from throughout the East Coast will be shipped to Turkey for free.

"We hope the refugees will receive them by the end of December, just the time they are going to need them," said Hasan H. Eruslu, a doctoral student in the Department of Mathematical Sciences and one of the campus drive organizers. "It's marvelous to help some devastated lives from thousands of miles away. This definitely couldn't be done without the generosity and gracious help of many people in our University community."