On August 24th at 3:30am, an earthquake with a magnitude (M) 6.2 struck central Italy. Peace Winds Japan (PWJ) and our partner organization Asia Pacific Alliance for Disaster Management (A-PAD) have dispatched joint Search and Rescue (SAR) team along with one SAR dog.

PWJ and A-PAD arrived in Turkey, where they were joined by GEA, a Turkish relief NGO, along with some of the SAR teams from Taiwan and Hong Kong will also come together with our relief effort. The team is currently gathering information about the earthquake affected areas in Italy.

Previously, our SAR team has responded to disasters such as landslides in Hiroshima and typhoon in the Philippines in 2014, earthquakes in Nepal, typhoon and flood in Taiwan and Kanto region of Japan last year and earthquake in Kumamoto, south of Japan this April. This will be the 7th mission for our SAR team if deployed.