By Oqab Al-Qouba
KUWAIT, March 29 (KUNA) -- Over 100 international charities and relief organisations will take part in a NGOs aid-pledging event for Syrian refugees on Monday ahead of talks at the level of nations a day later.
The meeting is being organized by the Kuwait-based International Islamic Charity Organisation (IICO) for the second year in a row as a supplementary event to the governments' donors talks which will be held for a third year in Kuwait.
Both events will provide a platform for much-needed funds directed at humanitarian relief efforts for Syrians displaced within their country or across neighbouring countries like Lebanon, Jordan and Turkey as a result of the severe conflict that began in March 2011.
These refugees are in desperate need of food, adequate shelter and medical supplies and Kuwait has taken it upon itself to host both of these events.
Speeches highlighting these needs and resulting programmes will be delivered by the bodies working on the ground, along with announced partnerships and schemes between the parties and the pledges made by each.
The enormous numbers of the displaced, which has reached an astonishing 12.5 million people, has provided these organisations with the problem of a lack of funds.
Meanwhile inside Syria, fighting and violence has also made it difficult logistically to deliver much-needed relief and medical supplies.
The events managed to amass USD 183 million in 2013 and USD 400 million the following year, representing total pledges of USD 583 million.
These amounts were added to the sums of USD 1.5 billion (2013) and USD 2.4 billion (2014) raised in the government talks over Kuwait I and II - a total of USD 3.9 billion.
Of these pledges, Kuwait donated a collective USD 800 million, including USD 300 million and USD 500 million. (end) am.sd