Humanitarian aid headed to Syrians from North Texas

Syrian refugees in Hungary will benefit from a special delivery from Texas that includes surgical packs, operating tables, wheelchairs, walkers, stretchers, baby diapers and medical supplies.

The supplies are part of a philanthropic mission aimed at helping the thousands of Syrian refugees who ended up in Hungary after fleeing their homeland. Baylor Scott & White’s Faith in Action Initiatives, the Sarah and Ross Perot Jr. Foundation and ATX Air Services teamed up to send the medical supplies.

A Boeing 737 aircraft was filled with the supplies Wednesday at Fort Worth Alliance Airport. The delivery was expected to arrive in Hungary later this week.

“When you do a benevolent flight like this, it is apolitical,” said Scott Bohnenkamp, general manager/BBJ International Captain at ATX Air Services. “These are people stuck in a huge mess overseas and they are short of everything. There’s hundreds of thousands of people and the things we are sending are the basic needs.”

The Syrian refugee crisis has captured global attention as thousands of men, women and children attempt to find safety outside of their homeland.

Syrians are fleeing because of civil war and attacks from extremists with the Islamic State and the al-Nusra Front. An estimated 4 million refugees have been displaced and are seeking refuge in neighboring countries such as Turkey, Lebanon and Jordan.

The U.S. Department of State recently announced that it would accept more refugees in upcoming months.

More than 250,000 Syrians have died in the violence.

And an estimated 2,236 children were killed between Jan.1 through Aug. 31, according to the Syrian Network for Human Rights.

Last year, ATX Air Services helped move about 15,000 pounds of critical medical supplies to Monrovia, Liberia, during the Ebola outbreak.

This story was originally published September 23, 2015 at 5:36 PM with the headline "Humanitarian aid headed to Syrians from North Texas."