Kerem Kınık

Fatma Meriç Yılmaz has been elected as the first female president of the Turkish Red Crescent during an extraordinary general assembly held on July 9 in Ankara's Etimesgut district, with 800 delegates casting their votes.

Pointing to the humanitarian plight taking place in Ukraine, Kerem Kınık, the head of the Turkish Red Crescent, said that "one out of 8 people in Ukraine are displaced."

Kınık spoke at the "11th European Regional Conference" held by the International Feferation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies in Georgia's capital Tbilisi on April 26.

The Turkish Red Crescent and the Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) have announced they are sending humanitarian aid and personnel to Ukraine.

Turkey has established a new residential region in Syria's northwestern province of Idlib to host all the Syrians displaced from their houses amid the civil war in the country that has been going on since 2011.

The Turkish Red Crescent collected 3,970 immune plasmas donated across the country amid the novel coronavirus outbreak, according to the group's top official.

Over 1,000 coronavirus patients in Turkey are hoping to benefit from possibly life-saving immune plasma treatment from the Turkish Red Crescent (Kızılay), the group's head said on April 27. 

In a video press conference, Dr. Kerem Kınık said 567 people across Turkey have donated immune plasma, while 1,066 people are hoping for the plasma treatment.

Patients who have recovered from the coronavirus have been mobilizing to donate immune plasma to help others with treatment, according to the head of the Turkish Red Crescent.

Dr. Kerem Kınık said on April 24 more than 800 immune plasma components were made available to the ministry of health and university hospitals.

Patients in Turkey receiving convalescent plasma therapy have been responding positively to COVID-19 treatment, according to a top Red Crescent official. 

"We are receiving positive signals from the doctors who are taking care of seriously ill people [undergoing immune plasma therapy], Dr. Kerem Kınık, head of the Turkish Red Crescent Society told Anadolu Agency.

Head of Turkish Red Crescent (Kızılay) on April 7 announced that patients who have recovered from the novel coronavirus can help heal others 14 days after their recovery.

Kerem Kınık stated that donors can help six COVID-19 immune patients by donating plasma three times in a week, he noted that one unit was 400 milliliters.

The Turkish Red Crescent (Kızılay) has set the goal of helping 25 million people in 2020, the charity's head said on Dec. 26. 

This year the charity helped 22.3 million people worldwide, Kerem Kınık said at their annual meeting in Istanbul.