Iraqi grandmother donates pension to quake victims

ALBAWABA - A poignant but touching story is trending on the internet and it comes from an Iraqi grandmother. 

After hearing of the massive devastation caused by the powerful earthquakes that hit southern Turkey and Syria last Monday, she decided to dispense of her pension by donating it to the stricken people in those areas. 

Her full story is carried by Anadolu. 

Khorshid Hussein Mohammed, 75, from the town of Barda Qaraman in the Sulaymaniyah province did not forget the people affected by the earthquake disaster in southern Turkey, despite her illness and poverty.

Recalling the time she lived in a camp, Khorshid said when she saw the disaster in Turkey on television, she recalled the tough times she went through when she left her village and remained homeless.

“I took with me 50,000 Iraqi dinars (nearly 645 Turkish liras) of my disability pension and some clothes,” she said.

“Despite my illness, I went to Sulaymaniyah by taxi. It was raining, and I couldn't sleep that night,” Khorshid noted.

“My heart was beating with excitement, and I was crying on my way to the campaign area,” she added.

At least 31,643 people were killed by two strong earthquakes that jolted southern Turkey on Feb. 6, the country's disaster agency said on Monday.

The earthquakes, measuring 7.7 and 7.6-magnitude, centered in the Kahramanmaras province. They affected more than 13 million people across 10 provinces, including Adana, Adiyaman, Diyarbakir, Gaziantep, Hatay, Kilis, Malatya, Osmaniye and Sanliurfa.

Several countries in the region, including Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Jordan, the Palestinin territories and Israel also felt the strong tremors that struck Turkey in the space of less than 10 hours, the Turkish news agency reported.