The UAE’s Compassion campaign has raised more than Dh208 million in financial donations in its first week and hundreds of tonnes of relief aid worth Dh20 million to raise funds for refugees and others in the Levant to help them survive the recent powerful snow storm Huda.
The overwhelming response to President Sheikh Khalifa’s humanitarian appeal from government entities, businesses and individuals to aid those effected has helped more than 12,000 Syrian refugee families and other people in need to help them endure freezing temperatures caused by storm Huda, according to the Emirates Red Crescent.
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, has instructed humanitarian and relief agencies in the UAE to continue delivery of humanitarian assistance to refugees and other people in Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine and Iraq’s Kurdistan throughout the winter season. UAE aid agencies will distribute winter relief materials and food assistance to help them endure freezing temperatures, reported Wam, the state news agency.
This follows the creation of the International Humanitarian Impact Fund by Sheikh Mohammed earlier this week. The fund is part of the UAE’s plans to become a global logistics hub for distributing humanitarian aid in response to regional disasters and crises, by 2021.
Mohammed bin Abdullah Al Gargawi, Minister for Cabinet Affairs and Chairman of the UAE Compassion National Committee, said that early directives from the President had contributed significantly to rescuing thousands of people from the Middle East’s most severe snowstorm and has drawn the attention of the international community to the suffering of millions of refugees and other people in the Levant and Iraq due to the harsh winter weather.
Mr Al Gargawi said that close follow up by Sheikh Mohammed of the relief operations had been instrumental in the swift delivery of assistance to those in need.
Mr Al Gargawi said relief agencies working on the ground estimated that the number of beneficiaries of the UAE’s financial and humanitarian aid would rise to over two million.
newsdesk@thenational.ae
