3 November: British Airways Relief Flight to East Africa

A very well made film highlighting one of the many ways BA helps those less fortunate:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OxarEdimbo&feature=youtube_gdata_player

One of the very few airlines to make such mercy missions.

Lufthansa/Wings of Help/Payback did a couple of cargo flights back in September to Kenya, and Korean Air air are running a regular cargo shuttle between Brussels and Mombassa for the UNHCR. The real problem appears getting aid/medicine into Shabab controlled areas of Somalia and then controlling distribution to the needy, and other than a number of smaller charities doing sterling work, only Unicef seems to have a toe-hold out of the larger agencies/charities.

To keep on topic, Emirates have said they are focusing on supporting charities like Islamic relief directly, as they (IR) have some “traction” (horrid word, sorry) with the militants.

Its a desperate state of affairs affecting the whole of the Horn of Africa, with over 600,000 Somali refugees in camps in Kenya and Ethiopia alone.