The Belgian international and Galatasaray forward Dries Mertens and his wife, the television presenter Kat Kerkhofs have rolled up their sleaves to help the victims of the devastating earthquake earlier this week in Turkey. They were among the many volunteers helping out at a collection point for goods destined for the victims of the quake.
Normally Dries Mertens never tells the media when he has done something for charity. However, this time his club Galatasaray published some photos of the player helping out at the collection point.
Dries Martens and Kat Kerkhofs went to help at the emergency aid collection point that the club had installed on the car park of its stadium in Istanbul. Since the earthquake the club has already sent 20 truckloads of aid to the worst affected area, around Gaziantep in the south of the country.
It’s not the first time 35-year-old player from Leuven in Flemish Brabant has helped those less fortunate than himself. While playing for Napoli he and two friends went into the centre of Napels to distribute pizzas to the homeless people that were on the streets there. They didn’t this in all anonymity. The striker also regularly sends medicines to Venezuela, collects clothing for under-privileged children and visits several children’s hospitals. He also puts his weight behind a project set up by his former teammate Mihai Nesu, who was paralysed in an accident during training at FC Utrecht in 2011.
Dries Mertens once said in an interview that I don’t believe in anything religious, but I do believe that the world looks like a better place if the people around you are happy”.