Every yearTurkish non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are mobilizing to strengthen humanitarian aid to disadvantaged communities around the world. world on the opportunity of Ramadan. As charitable acts are a must during the Islamic month of fasting, they turned their attention to fate of moved people of Ukraine. Hundreds of thousands of people to have left the country already fleeing to neighboring Europe countries, as well as in Turkey. But the worst need for aid prevails for those who cannot or do not want to leave.
Charities based in Reach Turkey out to others countries during Ramadan, which begin in april this year, with humanitarian aid packages and iftar meal (a meal that Muslims eat on an empty stomach to end their fast) for needy Muslims.
They are already in on the ground bringing aid to Ukraine, but their activities will increase during Ramadan when they deliver meals, blankets, clothes and other aid.
Kemal Ozdal, head of Sadakataşı Association, told Anadolu Agency (AA) on Thursday they would be active in 34 countries this year and their help would focus on people living in conflict and disaster areas-hit areas. The association generally provides aid in the Middle East, Asia and Africa, but they have included Ukraine in their campaign this year. “We see people increasingly leaving the country via the Polish and Romanian borders. We sent our crews on The fourth day of the war to check their emergency needs. During Ramadan, we will distribute aid for refugees in Romania, Poland, Hungary, as well as internally displaced in Ukraine,” he said. Özdal said both public agencies and NGOs acted fast in response to the humanitarian situation in Ukraine.
The Humanitarian Aid Foundation (IHH), another Turkish charity, has been at the forefront of help, especially for Crimean Tatars in Ukraine, for years. Deputy IHH director Emre Kaya says they work to provide help in European countries where the refugees took shelter. He said they were handing out food and blankets to the displaced in Ukraine too. “We made arrangements for aid to Ukraine this Ramadan. We will do it set up iftar dinners and give away from food parcels,” he said. Kaya said there was a big vague of refugees from Ukraine and it would be anew experience” for that they reach out for people in Europe after years of work in other countries.
Recently, the Turkish Red Crescent (Kızılay) had sent trucks of humanitarian aid to Ukraine and set up mobile kitchens for Locals. Disaster and Emergency Management Presidency (AFAD) announced last week that 23 trucks carrying humanitarian aid sent by Turkey had arrived in Ukraine, Moldova and Romania. In a statement, the agency said the aid includes 3,536 food parcels, 510 family tents 26 general- tents, 930 beds, 680 sets of sheets and 4,416 blankets.
Aid agencies continue to ramp up up their efforts to provide much-needed relief to civilians affected by the fighting in Ukraine, and also for over 3 millions of refugees who have fled the country since the start of the conflict. Rzeszow, the most grand city in southeastern Poland, about 100 kilometers (62 miles) from the Ukrainian border, has become a hub for humanitarian aid for the region. By road and by air, aid supplies – including food, blankets, sunlamps, warm clothing, mattresses, jerry cans and plastic sheeting – continue to flow. arrive in a standard warehouse run by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), next at the airport outside Rzeszów.
“What we’ve done is bring more people in the country, bringing more assistance in the country, working with partners to make sure that we can work effectively, doing what we can to helpsaid UNHCR spokesperson Matthew Saltmarsh. Saltmarsh said the agency received “over 300 millions zlotys of donations” from the private sector in the past months and managed to deliver a few of relief supplies to Ukraine. So far, UNHCR has moved 22 trucks and soon plans for move another 10 with emergency supplies to western Ukraine city of Lviv, not far from the Polish border. Lviv was largely spared the scale of destruction taking place further east, becoming the first destination for numerous of those fleeing the country.
Some of aid sent to city was unloaded and distributed there, Saltmarsh said, but the rest are waiting to go on when the security situation allows humanitarian aid to reach the plushit parts of the country, including the port city of Mariupol, which has been besieged and subjected to punitive Russian attacks almost since the start of the war. “It is obviously very worrying and a big challenge for the humanitarian communityhe told The Associated Press (AP).
Efforts are also be storied up to help refugees, half of their children, who escaped over the past weeks in Poland and others countries bordering Ukraine. The refugees are coming now in next to countries are “more vulnerable, in a more traumatic state” than those who came in the first days of the war, says Saltmarsh.
Kateryna Horiachko, who escaped from the area around the capital, Kyivmentioned people there was “devastated”. “They lost their homes, they lost everything they had, they lost loved ones… there’s nothing left for (us) than (to) become refugees”, added Horiahko, who arrival in Suceava, Romania, on Thusday. Horiachko said it husband and parents remain in Ukraine and that she hoped to find a way for support their. “The economy in Ukraine is also ruined, people (are) now without work without income and they need support,” she added.
