Dear Catalyst Community,
Last week, the world watched in horror as earthquakes destroyed lives and communities in Turkey and Syria. The numbers of those impacted went up with each passing day of search and rescue. I have been watching the events closely with varying degrees of confusion, compassion and solidarity. I've also had moments of freeze from the shock, not knowing how to respond or how to be of meaningful help.
Coming out of this freeze, I want to mobilize into action. I want to be in solidarity with those surviving this horrible event. I'm sure I'm not alone in these feelings. I've been heartened by the courage and strength of our students who have come to me looking for support and a galvanized response from our school. Thank you!
In an effort to guide our community toward resources for how to take action I'm making this post today as Student Support. Below is a list of vetted resources for finding charities in case you want to give and/or get involved in the relief effort.
I want to personally apologize to any students who felt unseen or unheard due to the slowness of response to this critical and devastating event. If you want more resources outside of the school I can recommend these counselling centres in Berlin for crisis counselling, that are culturally competent and speak Turkish and Arabic as well:
- StudierendenWERK: Counselling Centre
- Caritas: Counselling Centre for Adult Immigrants
- Counselling and networking for Turkish folks in Berlin can be found here and here.
- Counselling and networking for Syrian folks in Berlin can be found here and here.
Rest assured that Student Support is here to listen, help, and find resources. Please reach out to me any time for any reason.
In solidarity,
Aurelie
Student Support