Saudi Arabia to provide food aid for 4m Syrian refugees through WFP

Officials of the Saudi National Campaign to support Syrian refugees distribute school bags to Syrianschoolchildren in Jordan. (SPA)

JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia, represented by the Saudi Fund for Development (SFD), signed an agreement with the United Nations World Food Program (WFP) in Riyadh on Thursday to provide food services to 4 million displaced people in Syria. 
Another $6 million agreement was signed to provide support for half a million refugees in Jordan, according to local media.
Yousef bin Ibrahim Al-Bassam, vice president and managing director of the SFD, signed the agreements for Saudi Arabia while Abdallah Al-Wardat, director of WFP Office for the GCC countries, signed on behalf of the WFP.
Al-Wardat said on the sidelines of the signing ceremony: “We are grateful for this contribution from the SDF which will help us to provide food aid to thousands of Syrians inside both Syria and Jordan. We have enjoyed close partnership with Saudi Arabia for more than four decades as Saudi Arabia is one of the key countries that supports the WFP projects and has thus far helped to save the lives of millions of people around the world.”
He noted that the two agreements are the second major cooperation agreement between the SDF and the WFP, adding: “Half the Saudi contribution value will be allocated to provide emergency food aid to thousands of displaced families inside Syria, including assistance for breastfeeding women, in addition to supporting the school feeding project for children as well as for skills training courses on agricultural projects. The other half will be used to provide food aid for refugees in Jordan, including support for the school feeding project there.”
Meanwhile, the Saudi National Campaign (SNC) in support of the Syrian people distributed schoolbags and stationery to 747 Syrian students in a Jordanian refugee camp in Irbid.
This comes within the framework of the 11th session of the SNC’s educational program entitled “My brother, with science we will build it,” which includes all age groups from the primary to the secondary study levels.
The campaign’s regional director, Badr Al-Samhan, said that the program aims to distribute 150,000 schoolbags containing stationery materials to Syrian students in Jordan in cooperation with the Jordanian Ministry of Education and the Jordanian Charity Organization for Arab and Islamic Relief, Development and Cooperation.
Al-Samhan pointed out that the campaign office in Jordan is proceeding in accordance with the plans that have been prepared in advance so that distributions can include all of the children of refugees. He emphasized that the Saudi campaign will continue to provide humanitarian support to refugees in Jordan, as well as in Turkey and Lebanon to alleviate their suffering and provide a decent life for them.
In another development, Abdullah Al-Rabeeah, adviser to the Royal Court and Supervisor General of the King Salman Center for Relief and Humanitarian Aid, met with Christos Stylianides, member of the European Commission in charge of Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management, in Brussels on Wednesday evening.
Al-Rabeeah briefed Stylianides on the humanitarian efforts extended by Saudi Arabia through its center to a number of countries including Yemen and Syria.
Detailing relief measures undertaken by the Kingdom, Undersecretary of the Interior Ministry Ahmed Al-Salem said that the Kingdom has received 2.5 million Syrian refugees and 500,000 Yemenis so far, and confirmed that the government has provided all of the relevant services to them.
In a speech at the 2016 Crans Montana Forum which kicked off in Brussels Thursday, he noted that Saudi Arabia ranks third worldwide in terms of the amount of relief and humanitarian aid given to needy and displaced people across the globe.
Al-Salem went on to highlight the Kingdom’s efforts in relief and humanitarian field, noting its achievements over the past four decades in which more than $139 billion has been given to the needy throughout the world, without discrimination based on their religious or ethnic affiliations.
Additionally, thousands of Syrians and Yemenis have entered the Kingdom as guests, and that the government has provided them with all of the necessary means of care to create decent lives for themselves and their families, including the ability to work and free access to health care and education.