On Monday, February 6th, a massive 7.8 earthquake hit the North West part of Syria, and the South East part of Turkey. This quake has been one of the strongest to hit that region in over 100 years. The death toll as of 10:50 p.m. ET was around 15,000, and over 40,000 people were injured.

The earthquake hit at around 4 am on Monday, and ever since then, hundreds of thousands of people have been suffering. Not only did they get hit with the insane initial hit, but they also got over 100 aftershocks since then as well. But that’s not even the end of their suffering.

In Syria and Turkey, it is the middle of the winter so even during the day, the weather is below-freezing. So unfortunately, the people that “survived” the earthquake are still barely making it because there is not enough shelter for everyone despite many efforts.

Other than the people trying very hard to get into these shelters and find food for their families, there are people who are going through such intense grief that they don’t even care to leave their deceased loved ones.

One sad story is about a grieving father who sat with his 15-year-old daughter in the rubble after she passed away from being crushed by concrete. He sat with her and held her hand, oblivious to the freezing cold.

Another mind-blowing story is about a mother who gave birth to a baby girl during the earthquake after the building she was in collapsed. Unfortunately, the mother and the rest of her family passed away. But somehow, despite being buried under debris for hours and being attached to the umbilical cord of the deceased mother, the baby girl survived. News stories are now referring to her as the miracle baby of Turkey.

This earthquake has caused a lot more suffering than any person would ever need in a lifetime, but the stories of survival and amazing rescues are keeping hope alive. Now that they have found as many people as they could alive, all the civilians have to do is find shelter and wait it out until they can start rebuilding. If you would like to help out, here is a link to donate to the cause.