BCF provides food baskets, supplies to low-income families in Kurdistan amid COVID-19 pandemic
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Barzani Charity Foundation announced on Monday that it would provide food baskets to low-income families amid the curfews imposed across cities in the Kurdistan Region.
“In light of the current crisis and the outbreak of the coronavirus in Iraq and the Kurdistan Region, as well as the authorities’ decision to impose curfews, the Barzani Charity Foundation decided to distribute food baskets to families with low incomes,” Soran Khalaf, head of the BCF in Sulaimani province, said in a statement.
Khalaf explained that the baskets include food and drink in addition to sanitary supplies and detergents, adding that hotlines have been established in Erbil, Sulaimani, Halabja, and Duhok provinces where people can request the delivery of food baskets.
Authorities in the Kurdistan Region decided to impose a curfew in the provinces of Erbil and Sulaimani as a precautionary and preventive measure against the threat of an outbreak of the coronavirus, formally known as COVID-19. Baghdad and other Iraqi provinces have also imposed curfews.
The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) has been a model for governments in the region and around the world for enacting early precautionary measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 as it became clear the disease was likely becoming a pandemic.
Measures have included temporarily closures of schools, extended public holidays for government workers, the cancellation of all religious services, and a temporary curfew in Erbil and Sulaimani.
So far, Iraq has confirmed 133 coronavirus cases across the country. Ten of them have died while 30 others have recovered.
The BCF is one of the most active humanitarian NGOs in Kurdistan that often provides a substantial amount of aid to internally displaced persons and refugees in both Iraq, the Kurdistan Region, and northern Syria, as well as multiple programs to enrich the lives of displaced children.
The organization was founded in 2005 and, in its own words, “strives to honor the great legacy of Malla Mustafa Barzani, the leader of the Kurdish Liberation Movement and influencer of the contemporary Kurdish nation.”
Editing by Karzan Sulaivany