Soon after the twin earthquakes struck southeastern Türkiye on Feb. 6, many international students joined search, rescue and relief operations in quake-hit areas to lend a helping hand to the affected citizens.

Syafiq Mardi, 29, had just finished his meeting with friends in Singapore on a sunny Sunday. The group finalized the target of food packets to be shipped to Türkiye, as Ramadan, a holy fasting month for Muslims, is just around the corner.

"(But) this is a short-term plan and in the coming days, we are working on sustainable donations to be part of rebuilding Türkiye," Mardi told Anadolu Agency (AA) from Singapore.

A graduate of Çukurova University in the southern Adana province, Mardi first landed in Türkiye back in 2013 for studies.

After studying Islamic theology, art and history, he graduated last year under Türkiye Scholarships – a government-funded higher education scholarship program run by Türkiye’s Presidency of Turks Abroad and Related Communities (YTB).

Back home, Mardi is involved in volunteer work to ship relief, in cash and kind, for earthquake-hit people in Türkiye.

"As part of Be Kind Project, a local Singaporean organization, we collected more than $20,000 (TL 377,720) in just one week besides other necessary items including food and clothes," Mardi explained.

"Now we are working on a long-time project for education and social building activities," he said, adding: "Now is my time to repay the kindness that I received in Türkiye. It is our way of expressing gratitude to the benevolent country."

Türkiye provides necessary funding, facilities for accommodation and other activities for international students, ranging from high school to post-doctoral degrees. Currently, there are over 170,000 international students pursuing various degrees in the country.

‘Can’t resist helping affected people’

From the Turkish capital Ankara, Sherhan Upahm Abas, 27, joined a group to help people in the quake-hit region.

A native of Bangsamoro, a southern Muslim-majority autonomous region of the Philippines, Abas, along with a group that comprised students from Malaysia, Bangsamoro and Indonesia, and a Rohingya, traveled to Hatay, Kahramanmaraş and Gaziantep.

"Whenever we are in need, Türkiye is always there for us," said Abas, who is pursuing a master’s degree in information systems at Ankara’s Gazi University.

"It is not just about religion, we are brothers, we have to help each other," he stressed, recalling his "sorrowful experience" in the quake-hit areas.

"I don’t think anyone can resist helping these quake-affected people," he shared. Led by the Türkiye-based International Youth Forum (IYF), the group distributed blankets, food parcels, shoes, solar panels and jackets among quake-affected people.

‘Türkiye provided education'

Meanwhile, Aung Naing Shwe, 31, has not visited his family, victims of Myanmar’s persecution of Rohingya, since he arrived in Türkiye in 2018.

Shwe, a Ph.D. candidate at Ankara Yildirim Beyazit University, told Anadolu Agency (AA) that he helped the quake-affected people with psychosociological needs. "I visited camps and talked to quake-affected people who needed any kind of psychosocial support," said Shwe, who has worked for four years as a psychological counselor.

"Türkiye is supporting people everywhere around the world, especially our Rohingya community in every aspect ... be it medical or education," Shwe highlighted, as he recalled support extended by the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA), a state-run development aid agency, and the Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD) to the Rohingya community living in Bangladesh.

"It has been very helpful for our people," he said, adding: "Educating us is everything for a community like ours."

Shwe, who is also a YTB scholar, explained that quake-affected people need psychosocial support because some lost their parents and some their homes and properties in the catastrophe.

"This is a traumatic event and we need to reduce such kind of trauma from their minds," he emphasized.

‘We want to help Turkish people’

Similarly, Musaib Afzal, a fresh YTB graduate who returned home to Indian-administered Kashmir, is busy helping individuals and organizations in the Himalayan region that are shipping relief to Türkiye in the earthquake's aftermath.

Recalling an emotional incident in Srinagar, the capital of Kashmir, Afzal noted he encountered a vendor who said he had no cash to contribute to relief work. "This is all I have, the baby cups, please send them to Türkiye soon," Afzal quoted the vendor.

"We want to be there with Turkish people (in times of need) even with our small contributions," said Afzal, who has gained thousands of social media followers for his digital content spreading awareness about educational, cultural and other opportunities provided in Türkiye.

A graduate of Islamic sciences from Recep Tayyip Erdogan University, Afzal recalled the time he spent volunteering with different student and civil society organizations in Türkiye’s Black Sea province of Rize.

Working with local civil society organizations and student groups helped him understand Turkish culture well, he acknowledged. "It helped me develop deep communication with local Turkish people and see their love toward Muslims from other parts of the world.

"They are always there for us, anywhere in the world," said Afzal, referring to Türkiye’s humanitarian organizations including the Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH).

In Kashmir, he guided people and organizations to contact the Turkish Embassy in New Delhi, India’s capital.

"Lots of people sent support through cash donations," he added.

Iraqi students contribute

Amjad Yasir led a group of international students who traveled from Iraq to Kahramanmaraş and Hatay.

"We have founded an all-Iraqi student organization in Türkiye to assist earthquake-affected people," Jawdat told AA.

He said the group of around 50 students works in coordination with organizations "back home (that) send us material and help us raise funds for the quake victims."

"We drove to Kahramanmaras and Hatay to hand out humanitarian aid. Iraqi students made large amounts of cash donations to the Turkish Red Crescent as well as to the AFAD, and helped over 1,000 families," Yasir shared, adding the group’s humanitarian work was coordinated by the Istanbul-based youth board of the Union of NGOs of the Islamic World.

The Iraqi group is also buying around 1,000 tents that will be distributed to quake-affected people in Kahramanmaras.

Nigerian student understands quake 'firsthand'

Ayodele Akin-Adamu, who studies structural engineering at Dokuz Eylul University in the Aegean coastal city of Izmir, joined a group of students to help with the packaging and distribution of food in Kilis.

Besides witnessing the situation on the ground himself, Ayodele said that his trip to Kilis helped him "understand the impact of the earthquake firsthand."

"I left Izmir for Kilis because I wanted to help the people affected by the earthquake in whatever capacity I can," he told AA while his friend Rizwan uz Zaman from Kashmir was distributing food packages among the quake-hit people. The duo has joined the Istanbul-based IHH, which runs one of the biggest relief centers in the province, close to the border with Syria.

Ayodele said working experience with the IHH enabled the international students to "see how they operate ... prepare food, provide temporary shelter, clothing and other essential items" to quake-affected people.

On Feb.6, the magnitude 7.7 and 7.6 quakes, centered in the Kahramanmaraş province, affected over 13 million people across 11 provinces, including Adana, Adıyaman, Diyarbakır, Gaziantep, Hatay, Kilis, Malatya, Osmaniye, Elazığ and Şanlıurfa.

The death toll from the massive earthquakes has climbed to 44,374, according to the latest official figures while thousands of others have been injured.