News report by Mohammad Al-Mutairi
KUWAIT, Dec 25 (KUNA) -- Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development (KFAED) has given multiple grants worth USD 88.1 million to refugees and the displaced throughout the world between 2016 and 2022.
KFAED, one of the State of Kuwait's main philanthropic body, dedicated substantial grants for cancer patients among the refugees and relocated, to provide diverse health care and improve living conditions for these distressed peoples in Syria, Bangladesh, the Kurdistan Region of Iraq, and Yemen.
The fund's acting director general, Waleed Al-Bahar, said in an interview with Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) that the fund's global humanitarian policy is primarily aimed at providing financial assistance for diverse sectors, namely infrastructures, health care, and education among others.
Elaborating, Al-Bahar said KAFED's policy also aimed at helping the refugees and people in similar difficult conditions; victims of conflicts and disturbances as well as natural catastrophes.
Touching on the policy's basic principles, Al-Bahar has affirmed that the strategy is broader, covering various aspects, such as giving a hand in efforts to restore peace in troubled areas and attaining sustainable economic and social development.
Furthermore, Al-Bahar has affirmed that the fund plays an effective role in pushing economic and social progress forward in Arab and developing countries, providing financial and technical support. Ahead of preparing aid dispatches, the KAFED decision-makers examine areas of dire need for sending urgent assistance.
They, Al-Bahar has added as he shed further light on the work mechanisms, study the needs in such badly stricken regions. Some of such tasks are done in coordination with relevant UN agencies and other partners.
Once the relief supplies have been delivered, the leading personnel ensure that they have reached the targeted segment and have proven effective in alleviating the hardships.
In Lebanon, KFAED gave USD one million to the Children's Cancer Center of Lebanon, which treats Syrian refugee patients, in 2016. The same year, it provided USD nine million for the King Hussein Foundation Cancer Foundation and Center (Jordan).
Some USD nine million, went for Lebanon's Council of Construction and Development to finance development projects, in 2016, and USD one million was given to King Hussein Cancer Foundation and Center in Jordan in 2017.
In 2017, KFAED earmarked USD one million to relieve the Rohingya refugees living in squalid conditions in Bangladesh, a sum of one million USD was dedicated for King Hussein center in 2018, another, standing at USD 10 million, was dedicated for improving living conditions for the Syrian refugees in the Kurdistan Region in Iraq, in 2018, Al-Bahar told KUNA.
He added that some USD two million worth of aid was allotted for the children cancer center in Lebanon, in 2019.
Also in 2019, the fund granted USD nine million for building schools for the Syrian refugees in Lebanon and sent USD two million to King -Hussein foundation in Jordan. The next year, it granted USD 14 million for the kids' cancer center in Lebanon and USD 2.4 million for relief projects for the Syrian refugees in Lebanon.
For that same purpose concerning the Syrian refugees in Iraq, USD 2.6 million went for them in 2020, in addition to USD two million for King Hussein foundation in Jordan the year after. As to the impoverished Rohinya, many living in squalor in haphazardly built camps in Bangladesh, KFAED extended its long and generous hand, relieving them with USD 3.7 million in 2021.
That same year, it granted USD 3.5 million for utilities at the Syrian refugees' camps in Lebanon, followed with 1.9 million for basic health care for them and USD 1.5 million also for them later on.
Between 2021 and 2022, KFAED granted USD 20 million to the UN agency that cares for Palestinian refugees, the UNRWA, in addition to USD two million for Yemen.
In 2022, USD 2.1 million were dispatched for war-afflicted Yemen.
KFAED, the State main humanitarian agency, was established in December 1961, deemed at the time as the first such foundation in the whole Middle East.
Humanitarian aid is part of Kuwait's external policy and officials have affirmed advocacy of the "humanitarian diplomacy," Kuwait's exclusive category of diplomacy. The UN had designated Kuwait as the "center for humanitarian action." (end) md.hth.rk