ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq - The Kurdistan Foundation, an NGO that provides skills, career prospects, and volunteering opportunities to Kurdish youth, on Wednesday launched a campaign to provide humanitarian aid to the victims of flash floods in Sulaimani province’s Chamchamal district. 

Powerful flash floods struck the Kurdistan Region on Tuesday, most heavily affecting Sulaimani’s Chamchamal district and causing a total blackout as authorities scrambled to assist the citizens. At least two people were killed, and around 12 others injured.

“We are conducting an assistance campaign in the Chamchamal area and providing humanitarian aid to more than 500 families who have been affected by the floods,” Yara Barzanji, head of programs and partnerships at the foundation, said during a presser.

Kurdistan Foundation Rapid Relief Volunteer Teams, in coordination with @JccKrg, are documenting the damages caused by floods in Chamchamal, preparing for distributing assistance later this evening.
10 December 2025. pic.twitter.com/bRAu3BhW1z

— Kurdistan Foundation (@KrdFoundation) December 10, 2025

On Wednesday morning, the organization deployed 60 volunteers to support the district’s civil teams in emergencies and assess what affected families need. It has also set up a shelter that has the capacity to help 500 people.

“At Kurdistan Foundation, we find it very important to work with our people during difficult times,” Barzanji asserted. “As Kurdish youth, we are ready to help in every way.”

Footage circulating online showed neighborhoods submerged in muddy floodwater, with cars and other personal property being swept away. Several roads leading to Chamchamal were also blocked by the rain.

Kurdistan Region Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani said Wednesday that the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) is working to reimburse those who suffered material losses in Sulaimani caused by the flash floodskal

“We are working to provide an alternative water source until the sources are cleaned and safe,” Talabani told reporters in Chamchamal.

The KRG's electricity ministry later announced that power issues in the flood-stricken district had been resolved.

The Kurdistan Foundation, a nonprofit non-governmental organization seeking to provide greater services and opportunities for the Kurdistan Region’s youth and preserve and promote Kurdish culture, was launched in the Region’s capital, Erbil, in December 2024.

The platform brings several entities under one umbrella and aims to contribute to the empowerment and advancement of the Kurdistan Region through equipping the youth with essential skills and capacities and facilitating job opportunities, as well as offering broader initiatives that seek to empower and advance Kurdistan.

One salient example of the Foundation's work is the Climate.KRD initiative, which their website describes as an agency that seeks to "preserve Kurdistan’s natural beauty and promote sustainable environmental practices through its programmatic activities, and nurtur[e] a generation of climate leaders among Kurdish youth."