By TCN News,
Bengaluru: Sri Sri Ravi Shankar of the Art of Living Foundation will be visiting Iraq as part of the its sister concern International Association for Human Values (IAHV) aid distribution programme at Kurdish capital Erbil.
The IAHV along with few NGO’s in Iraq has collected 110 tonnes of food supplies to be delivered to Yazidi refugees on Sinjar Mountains. Sri Sri Ravi Shankar had earlier called on Governments of Europe, America and India to save the thousands of Yazidis trapped in the Sinjar Mountains in Iraq, a release said here.
Volunteers of the International Association of Huiman Values (IAHV) the sister concern of the Art of Living loading relief materials for the Yazidis refugees in the Sinjar Mountains.
“America has heeded to our call of help and yesterday they obliged with two helicopters to airlift 1 ½ tonnes food grains. We still have several tonnes of food grains waiting to be lifted to the people trapped in the Sinjar Mountains,” shared Sri Sri.
Sri Sri will be visiting the relief camps where IAHV will also hold a conference in the Kurdish capital of Erbil on November 20th titled ‘Protecting Women and Bringing Stability and Peace’. Thousands of Christians, Yazidis and Kurdish Shias are languishing in camps in Erbil, Duhok and Khazir, the release said.
Appealing for generous contributions, Mawahib Shaibani, IAHV program director, IAHV Iraq said, “Currently, the people in the relief camps lack basic items for survival, such as food, clothing and hygienic kits. They are in a very poor psychological state. We have proposed the establishment of an integrated educational program in the province to help the Yazidis students at the Camp and outside it; therefore we need stationery for the students. We have also proposed setting up of toilets and bathrooms. We also plan to provide basic foodstuff to the Camp periodically.”
Volunteers of the IAHV stand besides the relief supplies to be airlifted for the Yazidis in the Sinjar Mountains.
From its base in Erbil, the IAHV team has brought relief in the form of food, water and hygiene products to 5 different camps, each one sheltering 550 Iraqi families. IAHV has reached more than 2,000 families. Since September 2003 when Art of Living began trauma relief initiatives, around 10,000 people from Iraq have found relief from the stress-elimination breathing techniques, it added.
Adding momentum to the initiatives, and with an aim of healing the wounds of war, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar visited Iraq from May 21 to May 24, 2007 with his message of peace and non-violence. It was for the first time that an Indian spiritual leader was officially invited by the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.