News | 04 March 2022
ISTAT Foundation Grants $25,000 to Airlink to Support Essential Aid to Afghanistan
The International Society of Transport Aircraft Trading (ISTAT) Foundation has granted Airlink, a nonprofit disaster-relief organization, $25,000 in support of their response of delivering essential aid to Afghanistan. This grant is in addition to the annual ISTAT Foundation contribution to Airlink.
Since August 2021, Airlink has been monitoring the situation in Afghanistan and working with humanitarian partners to determine the role it could play in getting aid to relief organizations operating within the country. The Airlink team has been working to understand security concerns, impact of political embargoes, and logistics challenges in the region facing our NGO and airline partners.
This grant will support Airlink’s airlift from Amsterdam into Kabul and is intended to be the first of a critical air bridge initiative to address what quickly became a huge humanitarian disaster in the world.
“The ISTAT Foundation is proud to support this Airlink mission in providing the critical aid and essentials during Afghanistan’s health crisis,” said Peter Huijbers, ISTAT Foundation Chair. “Aviation-related humanitarian aid and developing human capital are the two core missions of the ISTAT Foundation, and the work Airlink does is directly relevant to these core missions. We are committed to supporting this airlift and many others as we are able, including the current relief efforts in Ukraine. We will have more information regarding our financial support to Ukraine very soon.”
"This shipment of medical aid will make a material difference to the lives of people in Afghanistan, enabling the number of mobile medical units in the country to increase substantially", said Steve J. Smith, President and CEO of Airlink. "Airlink and our NGO partner are deeply grateful to the ISTAT Foundation for their donation and helping to make this shipment possible."
Questions may be directed to foundation@istat.org.
About the ISTAT Foundation
The ISTAT Foundation is the charitable arm of the International Society of Transport Aircraft Trading (ISTAT). Founded in 1994, the ISTAT Foundation invests in and fosters the future of aviation across the globe by supporting individuals and institutions that promote the advancement of commercial aviation and humanitarianism. Annual grants from ISTAT itself, and contributions from individuals and companies, support the ISTAT Foundation’s five programs —Scholarships, Grants, Internships, Education, and Humanitarian Aid.
About Airlink
Airlink is a nonprofit organization working with aviation and logistics partners to transport relief workers and emergency supplies for reputable non-governmental organizations (NGOs) responding to rapid-onset disasters and other humanitarian crises around the globe. The ISTAT Foundation founded Airlink in 2010 and has contributed nearly US$2 million in support of their initiatives to date. To learn more about Airlink and how you can support their mission, please visit www.airlinkflight.org.
About the Airlink Afghanistan Response
Airlink is working with one of its internationally recognized humanitarian partners, which asked us to help coordinate a transportation solution and provide financial support for airlift of a significant shipment of medical supplies. This response will enable much-needed aid to reach their clinics across Afghanistan. Airlink is seeking funding to support airlift from Amsterdam into Kabul, where the NGO has a local operations team in Afghanistan.
The NGO has reported through mainstream media that “the breakdown of Afghanistan's health system will result in the deaths of thousands more children under the age of five every month” during the winter. Famine and COVID-19compound the situation. CNN reported that “the worst affected are the poorest (estimated at 11M Afghan citizens), who can't afford to travel to private health facilities in the cities” from their rural homes where they returned because there are no jobs in the city.
The NGO has been helping people in Afghanistan since the mid-1970s. They run over a dozen healthcare clinics across the country and the contents of this critical shipment would significantly increase the number of mobile clinics they’re able to maintain. These mobile health clinics support families that would otherwise not have the resources to pay for healthcare, or are unable to travel potentially long distances to open clinics.
People in nine of the country’s provinces would be helped. The NGO fills a life-threatening gap in Afghanistan’s health system, providing medical care to an average 80 patients each day. The NGO has shared that a low supply of basic pharmaceuticals and medicines risks severely constraining capacity to treat patients. This shipment includes medical supplies to ensure safe childbirths, diagnostic materials for preventable diseases, antibiotics, preventative treatments, reproductive health medicines, and additional pharmaceuticals.