Humanitarian Committee Seeks Charities to Receive Grants in 2015

In 2014, the ISTAT Foundation provided humanitarian grants to the following organizations: Angel Flight (USA), Aviation Without Borders (UK), Royal Australian Flying Doctor Service, AMREF (Kenya), and the Icelandic Association for Search and Rescue. Each US $10,000 grant helped these charitable organizations to continue their excellent work providing humanitarian services, which are variously designed to save or improve lives and to alleviate human suffering. 

The Humanitarian Committee also provided a substantial grant to Airlink, the humanitarian response organization created in 2010 by the ISTAT Foundation and which became an independent charity in 2014. Airlink enjoyed a transformative year in 2014 during which, with its partners, it facilitated approximately US $2.8 million of donated airlift for humanitarian purposes. The majority of this lift was provided via the Ebola Air Bridge, which Airlink created with financial support from the Paul Allen Foundation. Through the Ebola Air Bridge, some 550 tons of vital medical supplies were transported to West Africa at a time when almost all regular airlines had pulled out of the region. The supplies provided an important contribution to the battle against the virus and undoubtedly resulted in the saving of many lives both of Ebola patients and medical workers.

In 2015 the Humanitarian Committee is again looking for charities who utilize the power of aviation to bring about change and relief in the communities which they serve, and the first of these to be awarded a grant this year is Wings of Hope. 

Wings of Hope is a global aviation charity based in St. Louis, Missouri. Since 1962, the organization has been working to tackle poverty and improve the lives of the poor all over the world. Typically, Wings of Hope programs combine healthcare and transportation, the latter usually in the form of a small aircraft that is used to bring medical treatment into remote communities and to evacuate those who require specialist treatment. The 2015 ISTAT Foundation grant will be used jointly to support medical relief transportation within the U.S. and to provide emergency medical services to the indigenous Miskito people in the impoverished and remote Waspam/Tronquera region of eastern Nicaragua.

The committee welcomes the promotion by ISTAT members of charitable organizations that may qualify for one of the Foundation’s humanitarian grants, and any member wishing to put forward a candidate is invited to contact Julian Balaam, chairman of the Humanitarian Committee, at julianb@skytech-aic.com.