Ziyad Raoof at the press conference spoke about new humanitarian initiative for refugees in Kurdistan

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At the Marshal Office of Maloposka Region there has been held a press conference attended by Jacek Krupa, Marshal of Malopolska Region, Ziyad Raoof, KRG Representative in Poland and fr. Tomasz Jegierski, President of SOS For Life Foundation who informed that another humanitarian convoy will be sent to Kurdistan Region to help refugees.

The details of the initiative were presented by Jacek Krupa. Convoy will consist more than eight thousand cans of powdered milk for infants. Marshal Krupa emphasized that young children and mothers who cannot feed their babies are the most helpless victims of ISIS and the help to them should be deliver on the first place. Malopolska Region offered 100.000 PLN (25,000 USD) to buy the powered milk. Jacek Krupa ended his speech with an appeal to the people of Malopolska Region to solidarity with the refugees in the camps in Kurdistan. He also stressed that the Kurdistan Region for five years is associated with Malopolska by partnership agreement.

Further details of humanitarian aid were presented by Fr. Tomasz Jegierski. Thanks to the involvement of Polish Defence Ministry the convoy will be transported by a military airplane Hercules so the convoy will arrive sooner, and there will no need to pay for the shipping company. President of SOS for Life said that in addition to milk purchased by Malopolska Region, in convoy will be also milk from reserves of Polish Agricultural Market Agency. In total 8 tons of milk will be transported to Kurdistan. At the end, Tomasz Jegierski stressed that Kurds, “specially deserve for help” because of their heroism in the fight against ISIS and the protection of minorities, mainly Christians and Yezidis.

At the end Ziyad Raoof spoke. He thanked everyone involved in humanitarian aid. He spoke about the situation in Kurdistan. He stressed that refugees will again arrive to Kurdistan due to the upcoming operation to retake Mosul. The KRG Representative also reminded that it is not first time when Malopolska Region helps. He also mentioned other Polish non-governmental organizations, which in recent months implemented aid projects in Kurdistan. Ziyad Raoof said that KRG Office in Poland runs a special contact platform that aims to improve coordination and exchange the information between various Polish charity organisations. Ziyad Raoof ended his speech with appeal to continue the assistance, and to support the reconstruction of devastated areas that have been liberated from the hands of ISIS terrorist.

The conference was attended by several journalists from newspapers, radio and television, who conducted individual interviews with the participants.