Frequently Asked Questions

IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation was founded in 1992 with voluntary activities. Our foundation aims to deliver humanitarian aid and protect the basic rights and freedom of people who are in difficulty; who meet with disaster, are oppressed, suffering starvation or the cold; who are victims of war or natural disasters, were wounded or disabled; those who are homeless or forced to leave their homelands worldwide with no discrimination of region, religion, language, race or sect.

You can monitor, research all the activities carried out within the body of our foundation and obtain information from the relevant departments. You can acquire information on various matters such as where and how the donations are used, the criteria implemented when distributing aid and our working principles. In addition, all of our activities are released to the public in a quarterly bulletin published our foundation. The reports we prepare are distributed to our donators and volunteers, and also to the relevant state and civil organizations. Among the project teams in our activities we carry out abroad, there are opinion leaders, journalists and members of the media and our activities are monitored onsite by these individuals.

Our foundation is regularly inspected by the official authorized bodies. Additionally, all of our activity reports, in particular documents regarding our aid program and projects are available for inspection whenever necessary. On request, our donators can monitor our activities both locally and abroad onsite. However, our foundation does not cover the expenses of individuals or organizations that wish to inspect our projects onsite. Individuals that cover their own expenses are free to inspect all our activities. IHH Humanitarian Relief foundation that is inspected regularly by officials and organizations received the “Turkish Parliament Outstanding Service Award”, “The Best Use of Resources and Materialization Award”, and “The Best Materialized Project Award” by the Directorate of Foundations.

IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundations carries out aid activities both locally and abroad. Nevertheless, as IHH is a foundation established particularly with the aim of delivering aid to regions afflicted by war or natural disasters, we give priority to regions affected by such issues. As known, due to the risks in regions affected by crises and war etc. it becomes more difficult for aid organizations to carryout activities in these areas. IHH is an organization that is experienced, and works particularly in these regions. However, in addition to these geographies, our foundation also delivers aid to people in areas struck by poverty, and also materializes permanent projects in these regions. In this context, we also assist people experiencing difficulty due to natural disasters, poverty etc. locally, and provides food, clothing and medical aid to these people on a regular basis.

Our foundation makes no discrimination in religion, language, race or sex in its aid activities. Our main priority is humans. But when taking into consideration the regions where societies are afflicted by war or oppression today, we see that these are mainly regions occupied by Muslims. Our main priority has always been to deliver aid to people in need. For example, when aid is delivered to Africa due to famine in the region, not only Muslims, but also members of other religions and faiths also benefit from this aid. The aid works we conducted to help victims of Hurricane Katrina; the earthquakes in Italy, Haiti, Japan, Philippines and Nepal are an example of our perception.

Our foundation has no connection with any sect, ideological movement or political party. Our foundation bears the characteristics of an Islamic foundation institution and is a foundation established within the Turkish legal system. The aim of our foundation is to deliver aid to all humans who are in need wherever this may be. While doing so, we also attempt to assume a preventive role in the violation of human rights, war and occupation that in turn causes people to become dependent on aid. There are individuals from all sectors of the society who are donators or members of IHH.

IHH only has agencies in Moro, Niger, Somalia, South Africa, Pakistan, Sudan and Gaza. In certain European countries (Germany, Holland, Belgium etc.) there appears to be many organizations using names and logos similar to our organization that are also working in the same field. These organizations have no organic connection with our foundation. Donators, volunteers or any other individuals or organizations that want to contact us should do so directly via the contact information on our website or contacting our foundation headquarters in Istanbul. Organizations using the same, or a name or logo similar to that of our foundation are doing so without the consent of our organization. We disapprove of this situation which leads to confusion and misconception. Additionally, as these are organizations are subject to the legal systems of different countries, informing the public is our only means of preventing this confusion and misconception.  

Some of our projects materialized abroad are personally controlled by IHH officials, while some are conducted in collaboration with our partner organizations that are familiar with the region. The duties of IHH and our partner organizations are controlling the activities by preparing a report on the projects materialized in these regions.

In many European countries, especially in Germany, there are various organizations that operate under the name IHH. However, IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation has no connection with any of these organizations.

In addition to our headquarters and agencies in Istanbul, we also have an office in Kilis and Hatay/Reyhanlı, and a branch in Şanlıurfa and Bursa. Apart from these, we do not have agencies in any other cities or provinces. Our operations in other provinces of Turkey are carried out together with our partner organizations in those particular areas.