More humanitarian aid flights to Pakistan

Unloading of goods donated by “Hoffnungsfunke” consisting of
bottled water, flour, rice, salt, oil and pasta.

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In the early morning hours of 29 August, a second NATO humanitarian relief flight with goods for the victims of the Pakistan flooding departed NATO air base Geilenkirchen. The flight was conducted by the NATO AEW&CF Training Cargo Aircraft Squadron.

The cargo on this flight consisted of flour, oil, pasta, rice, salt and bottled water, all donated by the organization “Hoffnungsfunke” which requested transportation support through the NATO Euro-Atlantic Disaster Response Coordination Centre.

A member of the organization “Hoffnungsfunke”, Mr. Kahraman Celik, is a 31-year old German who studied at the University of Wuppertal. His parents are from Turkey. Together with some of his former fellow-students he founded the organization “Hoffnungsfunke”, based in Wülfrath, with the main goal of helping to educate children of migrants. When Celik and his friends found out about the slow start to aid for Pakistan, he said,” We can do this better”, and they started collecting gifts and money. “The donated goods were packed for transport in a warehouse, next to the Mosque. With the money we bought bulk packaged food. All this during Ramadan”, Celik added. “The result is that the TCA has now flown the goods to Pakistan. We had another load flown in by Pakistan International Airlines.”

This week, additional TCA flights are planned to fly from NATO air base Geilenkirchen to carry humanitarian aid goods to Pakistan.