Suffering under endless wars and the horror of death and starvation, people in Northern Irak have to survive in unimaginable conditions. The situation is exacerbated by the loss of their livelihoods, forced migration and persecution. As ever, the hardest hit of all are innocent children.
We dispatched our first aid shipments by truck to the region back in spring 2014 to provide emergency relief. The Margarete Müller-Bull Foundation is now committed to extending and accelerating aid with LOG Luftfahrt ohne Grenzen e.V. in its ‘Wings of Help’ project.
On 20 December a carrier plane took off from Frankfurt with around 300 cubic metres of urgently needed relief supplies heading for Erbil airport in Northern Irak. Just hours later a convoy of five heavy articulated lorries was on its way through the mountains to Sinjar, which had been liberated by Peschmerga fighters only the day before. For over four months the people there had been incarcerated under constant threat of being killed and tortured by the IS.
Aid workers from Luftfahrt ohne Grenzen and the International Medical Corps also visited refugee camps in Irak and witnessed the horrific conditions. Although temperatures are now around freezing point, many people and children especially, have no shoes, socks or winter clothes. Towns like Dohuk or Zakho have to deal with floods of refugees, who outnumber their own populations – and the misery goes on.
Luftfahrt ohne Grenzen aims to continue its relief work as swiftly as possible and send another carrier plane to Erbil in the upcoming weeks, with the renewed support of the Margarete Müller-Bull Foundation on-board.
