SA emergency teams in Türkiye to return home on Friday

More than 41 000 people died in the catastrophic earthquake that shook the country's southern parts and northwest Syria earlier this month. 

South African emergency responders, including the SAPS K9 unit and medical personnel, made their way to the disaster zone in Hatay last week to assist. 

READ: SA responders fly out to quake-hit Turkey, Syria

Founder of the Gift of the Givers Imtiaz Sooliman says the team rescued an 80-year-old woman who had been trapped in the rubble of a collapsed building for eight days. 

He says the days-long rescue mission took a heavy emotional toll on them. 

"It was a very emotional time for the teams. Wherever they went to people called them and asked them to please dig here, but longing in their eyes, hope in their eyes and pain in their eyes. 

"The teams are confronted by these types of sentiments from people all over wanting somebody to dig up their loved ones. Unfortunately, there were many areas that the search teams did not reach because the city is just too big and the destruction was too huge." 

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Sooliman says the South African ambassador to Türkiye honoured the teams for their work on Thursday night. 

"From there on-wards the 15-hour journey to Istanbul, we arranged for the flights from Istanbul to Johannesburg and Cape Town. The teams are in great spirit and they achieved a lot."

Meanwhile, the UN's appealed for $1 billion to address the growing humanitarian crisis in the two countries.

Many survivors are trying to pick up the pieces in freezing conditions and without food, water and toilets.