by Thinus Ferreira
The disaster relief organisation Gift of the Givers has invited and flown a South African TV news reporter from each of the country's three TV news channels to Türkiye to profile and report on the organisation's humanitarian efforts there following the series of devastating earthquakes in that country this week.
The SABC News (DStv 404) senior reporter Chriselda Lewis, the eNCA (DStv 403) senior reporter Dasen Thathiah, and the Newzroom Afrika (DStv 405) reporter Ahmed Kajee have all been invited by Gift of the Givers and are being flown to Türkiye to witness its support in that country's rescue and recovery efforts.
By Wednesday morning the death toll in Turkey has grown to over 11 000 people after massive earthquakes rocked parts of Southern Turkey and northern Syria on Monday.
The three South African TV reporters are on the same Turkish Airlines plane from Johannesburg as Gift of the Givers staff and their equipment - 50 tons of medical and rescue equipment - all going to Turkey to offer assistance as part of a 30-person team from South Africa, with dr Ahmed Bham leading the urban search and rescue team.
The Johannesburg plane left at 20:00 on Tuesday night for a 9-hour flight, with Gift of the Givers staff from a Cape Town flight also joining them in Turkey.
All three reporters did live reports and interviews on Tuesday evening from OR Tambo airport in Johannesburg or from inside the plane with their respective TV news channels before the flight departed.
