IHH is a Turkish NGO active in more than 100 countries. Established in 1992 and officially registered in Istanbul in 1995, IHH provides humanitarian relief in areas of war, earthquake, hunger, and conflicts. The IHH holds Special Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council since 2004.

It organizes disaster relief programs and defends basic human rights, including the right to be economically self-sufficient. The foundation has given aid to the predominantly Muslim victims of wars in Kosovo, Bosnia, and Chechnya and works on five continents to implement projects in many areas, including human rights, emergency relief, health, education, and social activities; assistance is offered regardless of race, religion, or language.

 

What We Do

Emergency aid activities

IHH aims to meet the urgent needs of those who are suffering as a result of crises, be they wars or natural disasters, in the quickest possible way.

• Search and Rescue operations and supply of technical equipment
• Urgent housing and the establishment of exigency units
  • Prefabricated housing
  • Tent cities 
  • Temporary housing
  • Mobile soup kitchens
  • Mobile bathrooms and toilets
  • Mobile health services
  • Temporary health complexes
  • Medication and medical equipment aid     
  • Operating theatres and other medical services
• Deliveries of food, clothing and other requirements
• All necessary security for women, children, the elderly and homeless

• Urgent sanitary aid

 

Social Aid

• Food Aid Programs (urgent food aid programs, Qurban programs, food aid and fast-breaking dinner organizations in Ramadan, mobile and temporary soup kitchens, foodstuff deliveries in crisis regions, etc.)
• Orphan Care Programs (building and managing orphanage facilities, providing food, clothes, shelter as well as educational and sanitary services to the children made orphan by wars, earthquakes and other reasons, etc.)
• Shelter and Clothing Aid Program (prefabricated villages, tent cities, rebuilding destroyed houses, restoration of damaged houses, clothing aid to needy people, etc.)
• Vocational Training Program (donating fishery boats and motor taxis to needy families, providing trainings in farming, carpentry, tailoring, painting, embroidery, etc. and establishing woman training institutes, etc.)
• Drilling Water Wells and Canals

 

Educational Aid

• Educational Facilities and Infrastructure Aid (building and renovation of nurseries, primary schools, high-schools, universities, institutes, youth centers; setting up and renovation of science and computer laboratories, libraries, sports halls, etc.)
• Educational Materials Aid (delivering school bags, educational sets, school uniforms, and supplementary materials to needy students, donating essential and supplementary educational materials to school, etc)
• Vocational Training Aid (providing vocational trainings, helping building proficiency in a job, and similar vocational education help)

 

Cultural Aid

• Supporting radio and television broadcasting
• Building shrines and mosques

 

Sanitary Aid

• Health Facilities and Infrastructure Aid (mobile clinics and medical buses, permanent hospitals and clinics, temporary tent hospitals, medication and medical equipment aid, ambulance services, etc.)
• Health Services Aid (cataract surgeries, employment of voluntary health personnel, rehabilitation of drug addict youngsters and AIDS victims, health screenings, preventive medicine measures, etc)

 

Projects to increase awareness

IHH conducts activities to raise awareness so that humanitarian crises and problems throughout the world find their way on to the agenda; in doing this the transmission of correct information about such problems to the public and motivating people to act with a feeling of social responsibility is paramount in preventing the violation of human rights.

For this reason, IHH organizes panels, symposiums and international conferences; reports are prepared in relation to existing humanitarian situations and problems. The public is kept informed through the release of periodicals, books and press releases. IHH makes use of the internet, as well as preparing radio and TV broadcasts, organizing contests, demonstrations, dinners and evening performances.