BCF, Women Empowerment Org. distribute aid to displacement camp in Erbil

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – The Barzani Charity Foundation (BCF) announced on Thursday that in cooperation with Women Empowerment Organization (WEO) it delivered European Union (EU) funded aid parcels to a refugee camp in the Kurdistan Region, including face masks and cleaning items to mitigate the risks of COVID-19 spreading inside the camp.

“The parcels contain cleaning items, including hand sanitizers, soap, shampoo, and detergent as well as face masks and gloves,” Rebin Aziz, the BCF representative, told Kurdistan 24. The packages were as distributed in a “door-to-door” manner, he added.

The refugee camp that received the parcels was the Basrma Refugee Camp in the Kurdistan Region’s Erbil province. The camp hosts Syrian refugees who fled the civil war after it erupted in 2011 and caused mass displacement.

The aid parcels that the WEO took charge of distributing, was funded by EU Madad funds, and BCF coordinated the distribution process as the camp manager. 

The BCF has previously distributed awareness-raising brochures among residents at refugee camps in a bid to raise awareness on the pandemic, the representative added.

Read More: BCF continues distributing cleaning, food parcels to areas under quarantine

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the aid organization has closely worked with refugee camps and refugees to control the spread of the virus. However, there has not been any registered case of COVID-19 inside refugee camps as health officials and international aid groups have cautiously monitored the situation.

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.

In its latest humanitarian effort, the BCF dispatched food aid to nearly 500 families affected by the fallout from the huge explosions that recently occurred at the port of Beirut.

Read More: BCF delivers food aid to nearly 500 families hit by Beirut explosion

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