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When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the crypto community mobilized to donate funds to Ukraine’s government and NGOs operating in the region. With millions of dollars in cryptocurrency pouring in from around the world, the uncensorable nature of Bitcoin, Ethereum and others proved crucial in providing help where it was needed.
But while the mainstream media continues to focus on Ukraine, several crypto projects and DAOs have turned their attention to providing aid to earthquake-ravaged Turkey and Syria.
Launched in 2019, Endaoment is a 503c non-profit organization that aims to encourage and manage cryptocurrency charitable giving. Last month, after several massive earthquakes hit Turkey and Syria, crypto donations started pouring into the region.
“This is a very rights- and sovereignty-focused community, so it was very easy for them to understand and feel empowered to be an activist about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” said Endaoment President and CEO Robbie Heeger Decrypt at ETH Denver. “In the case of [Turkey and Syria] earthquake, also a terrible tragedy, but naturally, we see great donation activity – but not to the same extent as when Russia invaded Ukraine, he said.
Heeger added that many people still donate to traditional disaster relief to help.
Like Ukraine DAO before, Turkey Relief DAO was launched after the earthquake in Turkey to raise funds to send to government agencies and NGOs operating in the disaster area. Turkey Relief DAO aims to raise awareness of the organizations working to help those affected by the earthquakes.
“I have been very close to the earthquake in [Turkey] 1999, so I know the difficulties that are going on right now on the ground,” said Turkey Relief DAO founder and co-founder of Huma Finance Erbil Karaman Decrypt at ETH Denver. “Fundraising efforts have been difficult because the media loses attention immediately – we don’t see that anywhere anymore.”
Karaman says Turkey Relief DAO is working with the Turkish government and NGOs to set up wallets on 18 chains to collect donations and send them where needed.
“More efforts need to be made to rebuild all these cities and these people’s lives for the next year or two,” Karaman said.
In February, Huma Finance, the project co-founded by Karaman, raised $8.3 million in funding after winning an award at ETH Denver 2022 in the conference’s decentralized finance track.
“We’ve been so fortunate because of our success,” Karaman said. “We’ve had crazy support from Ethereum and the surrounding community. Companies participating in the raise include Circle Ventures, Race Capital, Request Network and Superfluid.
