Flight carrying humanitarian aid for earthquake-hit Syria departs Bulgaria
A Bulgarian Air Force Spartan aircraft departed Bulgaria’s capital Sofia on February 16, carrying 4.5 tons of humanitarian aid bound for earthquake-hit Syria.
The cargo, mainly tents, beds, bedding and blankets, includes 2.5 tons provided by the Bulgarian Red Cross. The remainder has been provided by the Interior Ministry’s firefighting and civil defence directorate and consists of tents and blankets.
The Spartan was scheduled to fly to Lebanon, from where the aid will be transported to Syria.
The aircraft will return to Sofia via Adana, where it will pick up Military Medical Academy medical teams who have been assisting in Türkiye following the devastating February 6 earthquakes.
Bulgarian Red Cross secretary general Dr Sofia Stoimenova told Bulgarian National Radio on February 6 that the organisation’s fundraiser for Türkiye and Syria so far had raised 2.2 million leva. The fundraising campaign was continuing.
Stoimenova said that currently, only tents and heaters were being collected. The collection of other items had been suspended for the time being.
The Bulgarian Red Cross said on February 15 that it had transferred an additional one million leva from the funds collected through its national campaign to help victims of the earthquakes in Türkiye and Syria.
Of this system, 600 000 leva was for the Turkish Red Crescent and 400 000 leva for the Syrian Arab Red Crescent.
The total amount transferred to the Red Crescent organisations in the two countries since the earthquakes was not 1 810 000 leva, the Bulgarian Red Cross said.
It said that on the first day, in response to an appeal from the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, it had transferred 5000 Swiss francs from its disasters fund.
On February 9, using funds from the national fundraising campaign, it transferred 480 000 leva to Türkiye and 320 000 leva for Syria.
(Photo: Bulgaria’s Defence Ministry)
Please support The Sofia Globe by becoming a subscriber to our page on Patreon:
