Bradford charity, the Human Relief Foundation, has spent two decades delivering aid and relieving crises in strife-torn countries around the world.

HRF, which has its international headquarters at Claremont in Great Horton, has been responding to disasters and conflicts since 1991 helping alleviate the suffering of people affected by the Gulf War in Iraq.

With 400 regular volunteers in its home city, supporters are instrumental in its fundraising success.

It also has satellite bases in London, Paris, Jordan, Iraq, Sudan, Pakistan and Somalia to allow its help to get where it is desperately needed with workers on the ground.

Each month the charity also suppports 7,000 orphans in developing countries throughout the globe funding, through regular signed-up sponsors, youngsters’ education, food and clothing costs.

As the shocking level of child poverty in the UK increases, the charity has turned its attentions back to its roots in Bradford to help some disadvantaged young people in the district have a happier Christmas by it partnering up with the Telegraph & Argus Children’s Secret Santa Appeal.

The closest it has been to helping at home before was in 2009 when it sent a £5,000 donation to communities in Cumbria hit by the devastating floods.

Other than that, the bulk of its work has been abroad although the mass support it gets comes from the UK – especially Bradford.

While the Secret Santa appeal works its magic in Bradford, the charity’s work will still be ploughing ahead with life-saving projects thousands of miles away.

In Jordan, it is working with the World Food Programme distributing food vouchers to Syrian refugees (pictured), there are about 200,000 living there – the vouchers are all spent in local stores so the local economy benefits too.

And in Iraq it is restoring sanitation systems in 17 schools where a lack of privacy meant girls, in particular, were being kept away from school.

By building new toilets and washing areas in association with the United Nations Development Programme, HRF hopes communities will start to enrol their children back into education.

In Somalia mountains of waste threaten the health of people living in displacement camps, HRF with UN Habitat is working to fit solid and liquid management systems to get rid of the problems.

In September a total of 29 HRF volunteers and staff climbed Ben Nevis to raise £16,000 for Syrian refugees.