Search and rescue team succeeds UN program
Burcu Purtul Uçar – ISTANBUL
An all-volunteer Turkish search and rescue team, GEA, has successfully completed a one-week assessment exercise conducted by the United Nations.
Due to this the Turkish team, which is a part of INSARAG, a U.N. network of more than 90 disaster-prone and disaster-responding countries and organizations, since 1999, has now been declared as a “light team quality assurance working group.”
“We continue in our works on search and rescue for 28 years and we are happy to be honored with this,” Umut Dinçşahin, the GEA coordinator, said in a ceremony held on Aug. 30.
Türkiye has become one of the leading countries in the world by having four “light teams” on rescue missions, with two AFAD (Presidency of Disaster and Emergency Management) teams and one AKUT (Search and Rescue Association) and GEA team in each.
