Turkish Red Crescent helped 23M people in 2018

By Suleyman Elcin

ANTALYA, Turkey

Turkish Red Crescent (Kizilay) delivered humanitarian aid to 23 million people in 2018 across the world, the Ankara-based aid group said on Saturday.

"Kizilay helped 23 million people (across the world) in 2018. With the support and help of Turkish people, we struggled to ease people's pain in every place hit by disasters and crises," Kerem Kinik said.

Kinik was speaking at an ordinary local congress of the Turkish Red Crescent in Antalya.

"We want to boost this figure in 2019. Every day we should help 70,000 people. We should have 9,000 units of blood to give to at least 20,000 patients in 1,600 hospitals every day," Kinik added.

Kinik said that he is the 33rd head of the aid group and it has been active for 150 years, helping people in need across the world.

He added that 2.5 million people made donations to Kizilay in 2018.

Turkey is among the world's top aid donors.

The Turkish Red Crescent is the largest humanitarian organization in Turkey, with an international network to help other nations in need.