“Transparency is part of our credo"

Luftfahrt ohne Grenzen/Wings of Help joins the ITZ Transparent Civil Society Initiative

Absolute transparency is an important challenge for the continued existence and development of an aid organization: clarity about the structure, the targeted use of donations, the secure implementation of missions and actions at home and abroad are essential. Luftfahrt ohne Grenzen/Wings of Help (LOG/WoH), which has been a member of the German Donation Council for many years, has now also joined the Transparent Civil Society Initiative (ITZ), to which around 2000 organizations are now voluntarily members. ITZ was launched in 2010 by Transparency International and is supported by the Federal Association of German Foundations, the German Central Institute for Social Issues (DZI), the German Cultural Council and the German Donation Council, among others.

The sponsoring group ensures that the initiative is disseminated and carries out random checks to ensure that the requirements are met. The signatories of the initiative undertake to make relevant information about their organization easily accessible to the general public in a specific format. At LOG/WoH, this can be found at www.wingsofhelp.org/transparency. LOG/WoH says: “Transparency has been part of our organization’s credo since LOG/WoH was founded 22 years ago. This is demonstrated by the long-term support from companies and private individuals who value our work, which is primarily supported by volunteers. The ITZ logo can be found on the first page of the homepage www.wingsofhelp.org, and it leads directly to the requirements that ITZ also places on us.”

LOG/WoH: Targeted Aid for Young People in Kurdistan Camps

Luftfahrt ohne Grenzen/Wings of Help continues to expand its humanitarian engagement in Northern Iraq

Students in the Khanke camp in northern Iraq, at the Barzani Foundation in Erbil with (from left): Managing Director Noori Karzan, LOG/WoH President Frank Franke, Musa Ahmad, President of the Foundation, Neehad Salim Qoja, former mayor of Erbil and now Middle East Commissionar of LOG/WoH, and Farzim Bagzada, responsible for communications at the Barzani Foundation.

From Romania to Greece, from Kurdistan and Mozambique to Puerto Rico: Luftfahrt ohne Grenzen/Wings of Help (LOG/WoH) is consistently expanding its “Education is Future (BIZ/EIF)" learning program and has now established computer classes for young people in ten countries, which are now equipped with a total of over 1,000 computers.As part of this program, a school in Kurdistan, which cares for over 400 orphans, has recently received a dozen additional computers.LOG/WoH has been active in northern Iraq for many years with aid programs that benefit refugee camps with thousands of people, particularly members of the Yazidi ethnic group, who were forced to flee their homeland due to the genocide of ISIS terror a good ten years ago.In large tent cities such as Hassan Sham and Khanke, not far from the capital Erbil, there are now schools run and managed by the humanitarian Kurdish Barzani Foundation or the organization Our Bridge.As long-standing partners, they oversee the introduction and further development of the “Education is Future" learning program. The refugee tent cities in Kurdistan, home to well over a million migrants, now maintain teaching links with university faculties in the city of Erbil, which has a population of over one million, and with the American University in the northern Iraqi city of Dohuk, for the benefit of young pupils and students.

Neehad Salim Qoja, former mayor of Erbil and now Middle East commissioner of LOG/WoH, says: “Thanks to LOG/WoH’s commitment, young people in this country are finding a connection to the future. We see this long-term measure as an exemplary, contemporary form of humanitarian aid and are very grateful for it." LOG/WoH President Frank Franke: “Along with all the efforts to provide the population with the necessities of life, education remains an important challenge in opening new horizons for people’s future lives. Therefore, there is still a vast field ahead of us, to which LOG/WoH will increasingly devote itself."