BCF, LDS distribute 2,000 food parcels to Syrian refugees in Sulaimani province

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – On Saturday, the Barzani Charity Foundation (BCF), in cooperation with Latter-day Saint (LDS) Charities, distributed 2,000 food parcels to a Syrian-Kurdish refugee camp in the Kurdistan Region’s Sulaimani province.

Before restrictive measures, the refugees at the camp used to work in the cities to make a living. Following the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) precautionary measures against the novel coronavirus that have had an economic impact on citizen’s livelihoods, it has particularly affected the refugee population in the region.

The food aid was meant to assist the families who could not work due to lockdown measures, Rawaj Haji said, the director of BCF Media and Research Center, as he explained that 2,000 families benefited from the food parcels.

“The parcels contained essential food items that are necessary for a family of five to seven members,” Haji noted, adding that each 25-kilogram parcel contained “sugar, rice, cooking oil, tomato paste, and bulgur,” that feeds them for 10 to 15 days.

The two charity groups delivered their food aid to a refugee camp named Barika, in the Kurdistan Region’s Sulaimani province which shelters a significant number of Syrian-Kurdish refugees who have fled the Syrian civil war that erupted in 2011.

The BCF usually provides food and necessary assistance to vulnerable communities in partnership with international and local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as well as government entities.

In mid-June, Iraq’s Ministry of Displacement and Migration, in coordination with the BCF, delivered food packages to over 900 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in the Bahrka IDP camp in Erbil province.

Read More: BCF, Iraqi displacement ministry deliver aid to IDP camp in Erbil                                                        

The BCF is one of the most active humanitarian NGOs in Kurdistan, and it regularly provides substantial amounts of aid to displaced persons and refugees in Iraq, the Kurdistan Region, and northern Syria. It also has multiple programs which aim to improve the lives of displaced children.

The organization was founded in 2005, shortly after the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. In its own words, it “strives to honor the great legacy of Mulla Mustafa Barzani, the leader of the Kurdish Liberation Movement and influencer of the contemporary Kurdish nation.”

Editing by Karzan Sulaivany