Top clothing brands H&M Group and Zara owner Inditex have rallied around the humanitarian crisis in Turkey and Syria following a pair of powerful earthquakes that rocked both countries on Monday, pulverizing buildings into rubble and killing at least 19,000 people as a bitter winter cold and electrical shortages continue to stymie rescue efforts.
A new donations page on the Amazon Turkey storefront amassed more than 5,000 items from customers within three hours of going live, the Everything Store said. As of Tuesday morning, all of Amazon’s nearly 2,000 workers in Turkey are safe and accounted for.
Inditex, which owns Bershka, Pull&Bear, and others, said Wednesday that it had donated 3 million euros ($3.2 million) to the Red Crescent to support relief efforts. The Turkish arm of the humanitarian network has deployed manpower and equipment to the 10 provinces.
Inditex is also doling out 500,000 outerwear products to the Red Crescent and AFAD (Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency) with the help of its local suppliers
H&M Group also announced Wednesday that it is “working closely” with its local teams to “analyze the urgent needs.” The H&M, Cos, and Monki owner said it is distributing winter garments as a “priority” to earthquake victims, as well as giving $100,000 to AFAD to aid its work in Turkey.
MSC, the shipping firm also known as Mediterranean Shipping Company, wrote in an email that none of its vessels have been affected and that it will be diverting shipments, including all bookings meant for Iskenderun, to Tekirdag unless customers inform it differently. All booking cancellations, amendments, and changes of destination, as well as demurrage at the destination, will be free of charge for Iskenderun bookings throughout February 2023.
