Humanitarian aid worker applauds Kuwait's assistance for Syria

By Nawab Khan BRUSSELS, Nov 14 (KUNA) -- A Syrian humanitarian aid worker has praised the assistance from humanitarian aid organisations in Kuwait for the Syrian refugees and displaced people inside the Arab country.
"As an organisation we receive assistance from Kuwait aid agencies to implement humanitarian aid projects inside Syria as well as inside Turkey for the refugees. We work through humanitarian aid agencies in Kuwait," said Mohannad Othman, CEO of the Al Sham Humanitarian Foundation.
He was speaking to the Kuwait news agency, KUNA, at the sidelines of a major humanitarian aid exhibition in Brussels Thursday.
"Kuwait has been very supportive of providing funds to this Syrian humanitarian crisis, " he said noting that Kuwait has hosted three international donor conferences on Syria.
"Kuwait has always been one of the countries and donor who provided support and assistance to humanitarian organisations and agencies in Syria," he said.
Othman, however lamented that the humanitarian aid funds in general for Syria has decreased because of the protracted crisis in Syria that has been going on for a long time.
He said that there is a huge gap of about 60 percent in the funding programmes for Syria.
"This is a problem because it affects the people in need and also affects the people who are delivering the humanitarian assistance to those people," he said.
"We are asking our partners in the Arab Gulf states to keep supporting the humanitarian aid programmes inside Syria," said Othman .
"We only work in areas which are not under the control of the regime in northern Syria," he clarified and added that his organisation was founded in 2011 in response to the Syrian crisis with offices in Syria and Turkey.
AIDEX, the yearly global humanitarian and development aid event in Brussels closes its doors this evening.
Around 142 humanitarian aid organisations and companies dealing in humanitarian aid products and equipment participated in the 2-day exhibition.
Several conferences and workshops on the work and challenges being faced by humanitarian agencies around the globe were held at the sidelines of the exhibition.
Qatar Charity is one of the sponsors of AIDEX. (end) nk.sd