KUWAIT: Kuwaitiinstitutions and organizations have continued to locally and internationallyprovide relief assistance to refugees, displaced people and the needy duringEid Al-Fitr. The help Kuwait provided for health and education during the weekended on Friday in Jordan, Iraq and the Gaza Strip. In Jordan, the Kuwait Fundfor Arab Economic Development (KFAED) signed a fourth grant agreement for theKing Hussein Cancer Center (KHCC) worth $2 million to treat Syrian refugeessuffering from cancer in Jordan.
It was signed byKFAED's Director-General Abdulwahab Al-Bader, and the Jordanian side, theChairperson of the Board of Trustees of KHCC, Princess Ghida Talal, in thepresence of Kuwaiti Ambassador to Jordan Aziz Al-Deihani and senior officialsof KFAED. Bader said after the ceremony at the KHCC in Amman that the total incollaboration with the Center amounts to $5 million. The current grant is partof Kuwait's commitments to support the Syrian refugees announced at the fourthInternational Donors Conference, he explained.
KFAED providedthree prior grants to the KHCC for humanitarian assistance to Syrian refugees;first grant was signed in 2016 with a value of $1 million, the second and thethird signed in 2017 and 2018 with the same value each, he said. Previousgrants from the KFAED helped about 117 Syrian refugee cancer patients, Baderpointed out. The grant agreement aims to fund the costs of diagnosing thepatient through laboratory tests, chemotherapy, bone marrow transplantation andsurgeries, Al-Bader said.
In the meantime,Princess Ghaida Talal thanked KUNA for the support to the KFAED and spreadingKHCC's message. KHCC treats patients from all over the world, providing thebest and latest treatments according to international standards, recentlyplaced on the top ranks in developing countries and sixth globally in terms ofspecialization in cancer treatment, she said. KFAED toured KHCC to learn aboutits advanced equipment used in treating cancer patients and visited Syrianrefugee children.
Meanwhile in theGaza Strip, the association for disabled families in the Gaza Strip distributedmedical aid and equipment to hundreds of people with special needs in theKuwait emergency health relief project for the disabled in the Gaza Strip.Chairperson of International Islamic Charitable Organization (ICCO) Heba Adwansaid in a statement that the project targeted about 1500 people with specialneeds suffering from various disabilities.
The aid includedvehicles for disabled people, medical devices, as well as providing medicalcare through a mobile medical clinic. The project comes in the context of theeagerness of the Secretary-General of Awqaf and Zakat House in Kuwait toalleviate the burden of Palestinian citizens from the Israeli siege and harsheconomic conditions, coming at a time when various institutions areunsupportive, she added.
Adwan underlinedthat the implementation of the project reflects the Islamic and nationalresponsibility of aiding and thanked Kuwait, the Amir and the government. Thenin Iraq, Kuwait's Consul-General in Erbil Omar Al-Kanderi supervised thedistribution of 15 tons of foodstuffs provided by the Secretary-General ofAwqaf and the International Islamic Charitable Organization (IICO) in Kuwait tothe disabled. Kanderi said that this aid comes within the framework of theKuwaiti campaign launched by His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-AhmadAl-Jaber Al-Sabah to alleviate the suffering of Iraqis.
Variousassistance provided by Kuwait to Iraqis will continue and vary to include allsegments of society, he pointed out. In a similar statement, Omar Talal isthankful for Kuwait's humanitarian organizations, pointing out that 576 foodbaskets were distributed to people with special needs in Erbil. At the start ofRamadan, over 10 thousand meals were given to the needy, workers and studentsin the Kurdistan region. This was given by IICO who distributed food baskets todisplaced Iraqis from camps, totaling to aiding 3,507 families of Nineveh thathas a population of 17,300.
At the locallevel, the Kuwait Red Crescent Society (KRCS) said Al-Bayan Bilingual School(BBS) students raised donations of KD 49,000 (about $161,000) to children of poorfamilies inside Kuwait who cannot pay tuition fees.KRCS Chairman Dr HilalAl-Sayer said that the aim of the donation is to encourage students toparticipate in voluntary charitable work, thankful of the leadershipresponsibility students took such as Hussa Al-Kharafi.
Kharafi said thatBBS places education as a social priority because it is the foundation for thedevelopment and building of societies, adding that the project aims to raise aknowledgeable generation. The student is glad that BBS is donating, recallingthe school's success last year in donation, encouraging those wishing to donateto take this step. Contextually, the KRCS collaborated with Avenues to continuethe campaign to provide nurseries for newborns in Yemen, ending on June 16.
KRCSSecretary-General Maha Al-Barjas said that the donation campaign was welcomedby Kuwaitis and many donated to support the children in Yemen. Despite theavailability of screening, diagnosis and maternity programs by healthauthorities in Yemen, early births of undeveloped children are still a hugeissue. This could hinder the delivery of reproductive health services andsupplies, hazardously affecting mothers and their children, the UN PopulationFund (UNFPA) said. The Avenues Mall allocated two cash donation machines in theGrand Plaza area, as well as an electronic payment link to facilitate thedonation process, underlining that it gets sent to the special account of KRCS,Barjas pointed out. - KUNA