UPS has flown critical relief supplies including food and blankets to refugee camps in the Balkans in cooperation with UN agencies, and will support aid to Italy as well.
The UPS Foundation has been working with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the World Food Programme (WFP) to provide relief shipments to thousands of refugees in Greece and along the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia border.
Air shipments of 163 metric tons of relief supplies, including 86 tons of high-energy biscuits, 30,000 blankets, 25,000 sleeping mats and 1,000 solar lanterns arrived on Sept. 5. The flights were funded by The UPS Foundation as part of its UPS Humanitarian Relief and Resilience program.
This latest emergency relief shipment is part of The UPS Foundation’s long-standing relationship with the UNHCR, WFP, other UN agencies and non-governmental organizations. UPS serves as UNHCR’s emergency standby partner to transport critical supplies into the hands of refugees around the world.
In addition to the UNHCR relief shipments, The UPS Foundation also is aiding The Salvation Army, which will activate emergency funds from The UPS Foundation to support Syrian refugees arriving in Rome, Italy, with food, housing and legal advice.
“The refugee crisis is heartbreaking and strikes at the very fabric of our global community. We committed early on to support our humanitarian partners in transporting life-saving supplies to those people and communities in crisis,” said Eduardo Martinez, president of The UPS Foundation.
The UPS Foundation has been supporting relief efforts for Syrian-Iraqi refugees for the past three years with a wide range of activities, including flying goods to Turkey, Iraq and Lebanon.
The UPS Foundation’s Humanitarian Relief and Resilience program provides communities with crisis recovery support, from disaster preparation to urgent relief following an event through post-crisis rehabilitation. In 2015, The UPS Foundation committed $10 million in funding, technical and in-kind services to support a broad range of disaster resilience initiatives to strengthen preparedness, response and post-crisis recovery. In 2014, The UPS Foundation assisted with more than 263 shipments to 43 different countries to help with disaster response and recovery efforts.
