Within hours of the 7.2 magnitude earthquake that hit eastern Turkey Sunday, the Turkish people were left destitute and without much help. However, concerned people around the country responded immediately via social media. At the heart of these efforts, Erhan Çelik, a broadcast journalist in Turkey, asked his 22,000 Twitter followers if anyone was able to offer accommodations for the victims of the earthquake could send him an email. He used #ÊvimEvindirVan – my home is your home, Van – as a Twitter hashtag. The response? “There are 17,000 mails in my inbox,” he tweeted seven hours later.

The authorities in Istanbul rallied to help Celik’s efforts, allowing citizens to contact them directly instead of emailing Celik. There is now a 24-hour hotline for those efforts.

Accommodation offers also came through Twitter. “I am a policeman in Istanbul. We can house one family,” one read. Another tweeted: “My house is small but I can sleep in my daughter’s room for a while. I am waiting for a family of two or three people.”

The Good Samaritan acts spread even to three mobile phone companies, Turkcell, Avea and Vodafone. Celik used Twitter to help persuade them to grant people in the devastated region free texts and talk time.

via @guardian