How one 10-year-old school girl helped Red Cross earthquake relief, one cupcake at a time

When pre-dawn tremors shook lives across Türkiye and Syria in February, local Red Crescent helpers sprang into search and rescue mode, administering first aid and getting people to hospitals. Relief operations on both sides of the border are still in full swing, with emergency shelter, water and sanitation, as well as location of missing family members, just some of the urgent issues being dealt with. Soon after the first quake, a Sydney schoolgirl decided she could help, one cupcake at a time.

‘I didn’t know what to do at first, but I just really wanted to do something to help,’ says softly spoken 10-year-old Tulay Sallan, who lives with her family in Sydney’s Five Dock. She’d heard the pain in her parents’ voices as they talked about people devastated by the 7.8-magnitude earthquake in their home country that hit as they slept in the winter darkness. This was followed by another 7.7 magnitude earthquake, as well as aftershocks, while the family watched in horror.

Tulay, a Year Five student at Five Dock Public School decided to act in the best way she could – through a bakeathon. She’s always been a big help in the kitchen, and sweets are her specialty. Chocolate, vanilla, strawberry and cookies ‘n’ cream cupcakes, and doughnuts, too, would go on her bake sale menu. 

“Most people like to eat sweet things,” says the student, who after getting permission to run a bake sale at her school to raise money for earthquake victims, set about baking for her own Moment of Help.

In a matter of days, she and her friends printed and laminated posters and spread the word about the sweet treats that would help others. 

“That's her nature,” says Tulay’s proud mum, Faten. “She loves to help. Whoever it is, whoever asks her for help, she loves to help – always.”

The Sallan family are refugees from the very countries hit by the earthquake – Tulay’s mum, Faten, is from Syria, and her dad, Omar is from Türkiye. 

The Sallans know what it's like to have to start over, and how small gestures of help can make a big difference. That’s one of the reasons they seek out ways to return the kindness.

“It's really hard to start up your life from nothing, from scratch,” says Faten. “When I came to Sydney, I went for help at first and then I offered to volunteer because I thought, ‘Oh, no, it's not me who needs help – there are lots of people here actually in greater need.’ And I can see how amazing Australia is, with organisations that provide help, like Australian Red Cross.

“They are helping all people, with everything. I was surprised how much they help people. It’s not only about food, they need medicine, they need doctors, some of them can't work. I’ve heard lots of stories…” Faten’s voice trails off with melancholy. Some stories are too hard to share.

With relief operations on both sides of the border, Australian Red Cross launched the Türkiye-Syria Earthquakes Appeal to support Red Crescent partners on the ground in Türkiye and Syria. Funds raised are going towards emergency relief assistance including shelter, health, water and sanitation, and providing basic aid items; longer-term recovery support to affected communities as needs arise; specialist aid workers to assist local teams to respond to the crisis; and helping people restore contact with family members separated by the crisis by offering services to maintain family links and locate missing family members; plus monitoring and evaluation of the operation. 

To create her Moment of Help, Tulay and her mother began to transform their compact kitchen into a creative catering centre, producing tray after tray of treats.

“I was feeling really good,” says Tulay of the big baking process. “It was fun to be baking, and I knew little cupcakes would not only be good for my friends, they would be good for the fundraiser.” Her best friend, Lily, and her sister Elise, made cookies for the sale, while Tulay’s cousins Selda and Serdar also supported her. 

With the stall set up at 8am, fresh cupcakes piled high, everything was sold out before the bell rang an hour later. “The [cookies and cream] Oreo cupcakes went first,” said Tulay. “If I’d known how fast they would go, I would have made more!” 

After money was counted, Tulay’s sale had raised $750 to help the disaster effort. But she’d also raised awareness of something happening on the other side of the world and the power of helping others. As Tulay’s mum says: “Small things can make a big difference.” 

Australian Red Cross describes its mission as mobilising the power of humanity to bring people and communities together in times of need and building on community strengths to help others, providing urgent assistance to people who need it most, making your donation go a long way.

The Red Cross Migration Support Program helping people who have lost contact with relatives in Türkiye or Syria during the earthquakes is called Restoring Family Links. It can be contacted at tracing@redcross.org.au or 1800 875 199.

The Power of Help is within us all. Communities are stronger together. Share your Moment of Help here or to create your Moment of Help, join the Australian Resilience Corps, as we create the country’s largest army of helpers.