Turkey’s first lady to get humanitarian service award

ANKARA - Anadolu Agency

Turkey’s First Lady Emine Erdoğan will be given a humanitarian service award in London on Sept. 11 by the Global Donors Forum.

The forum is being organized by the Chicago-based World Congress of Muslim Philanthropists as the first meeting of the forum was held in Istanbul in 2008.

The Humanitarian Service Recognition Award acknowledges the first lady’s philanthropic efforts for the needy, especially the Rohingya that drew the attention of international public opinion.

Emine Erdoğan first went to Myanmar in 2012 and drew international attention to the persecution of Rohingya; she had pioneered aid campaigns for the Muslim minority people.

On Sep. 7 last year, the first lady and Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu visited refugee camps in southeastern Bangladesh where Rohingya Muslims took shelter after fleeing Myanmar’s Rakhine State.

They handed out humanitarian aid to Rohingya Muslim refugees at a camp in Cox’s Bazar district near the Myanmar border.

Emine Erdoğan also wrote an article for CNN International on the Rohingya issue on Sept. 19 last year under the title “The world cannot ignore the plight of Rohingya Muslims”, highlighting the issue before the international audience.

She also outlined Turkey’s efforts related to refugees and humanitarian aid at a meeting on the theme ‘Solidarity with Refugees: Humanitarian Approaches to Mediterranean, Africa and Myanmar,’ hosted by Turkey’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York.

Furthermore, the first lady wrote and sent letters to spouses of world leaders on the Rohingya issue.

She had also showed humanitarian sensitiveness over the 2009 attack on Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

She had organized an international summit in Istanbul under the title “Women for Peace in Palestine” where many spouses of leaders were invited to the summit calling for an end to the attacks in Gaza.

Global Donors Forum, the biennial convening of the World Congress of Muslim Philanthropists, mobilizes financial and intellectual resources to create socio-economic value beyond racial, religious and political divides, according to the official website of the forum.

The 8th Global Donors Forum will be held in London between Sept. 10 and Sept. 12.