It’s urgent we send aid to Turkey, Syria and the Middle East following a massive 7.8 magnitude earthquake that has killed and injured thousands. There are ways everyone can take action to help. And it’s needed desperately.

The horrific numbers of casualties will tragically grow in the coming days as more reports come about the earthquake’s far-reaching damage. Thousands of buildings have collapsed in Turkey. Aftershocks are continuing.

This region is already reeling from war and a massive hunger crisis. Just a week before the earthquake, the U.N. World Food Program warned that hunger in Syria was at a 12-year high. Syria has been mired in a civil war for over a decade and the inevitable result is severe hunger.

The World Food Program stated that in Syria “12 million people do not know where their next meal is coming from. Another 2.9 million people are at risk of sliding into hunger, meaning that 70% of the population may soon be unable to put food on the table for their families.”

Now you add the earthquake on top of that horrible scenario and you are looking at a humanitarian disaster. The U.N. is reporting that Northwest Syria is heavily impacted by the earthquake and that many of those in danger are women and children. The U.N. says that the humanitarian response for Syria was already severely underfunded. Now it’s imperative the international community step up aid to Syria and Turkey.

Said Sasha Ekanayake, Save the Children country director for Turkey: “This is one of the strongest earthquakes to hit the region in 100 years and made thousands homeless, while the region is experiencing freezing weather and snowstorms.”

Turkey has taken in many of the refugees from Syria’s war. Other countries in the Middle East felt the earthquake, including Lebanon, Israel and Iraq.

We need to be taking action now by rallying humanitarian aid for areas that already were quite neglected and suffering.

Okke Bouwman, media director for Save the Children Syria, said, “Twelve years of conflict in Syria have left families on the brink. The economy has collapsed, and families were already struggling to feed their children, to keep them warm this winter and to send them to school. Now children may be trapped in rubble, separated from their caregivers, or unsure whether they will have a warm place to sleep tonight.”

Everyone can make a difference even if you are very far away from the earthquake hit areas. You can donate to the World Food Program (WFP), Save the Children, UNICEF, Catholic Relief Services, Mary’s Meals, CARE, Mercy Corps, Action against Hunger and many other great charities. Even using the app Charity Miles you can raise donations for WFP, Save the Children and UNICEF. The online trivia game FreeRice also raises donations for WFP.

By holding a fundraiser for these charities, you can also raise awareness about the crisis. This is especially important for rallying advocacy such as letter writing to Congress. It’s very important to let your representatives know about the urgency of humanitarian aid for Turkey, Syria and other countries in need. If everyone does a little, we can mount a huge response that saves lives in Turkey and Syria in the aftermath of the earthquake.

William Lambers is an author who partnered with the U.N. World Food Program on the book “Ending World Hunger.” His writings have been published by the New York Times, the History News Network, Newsweek and many other news outlets.

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