WARSAW: The supervisor-general of the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center, Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah, gave a lecture at the University of Warsaw in Poland on Saturday discussing the Kingdom’s humanitarian work around the world. He said that Saudi Arabia had spent $95 billion on humanitarian aid to assist 160 countries.
Al-Rabeeah highlighted some of the milestones in the Kingdom’s charitable work, including its aid for victims of floods in Punjab in 1950; the establishment of the Saudi Fund for Development — aimed at stimulating economic growth in developing countries — in 1974, which provided aid to 55 countries in just four years; donations to victims of the war in Kosovo in 1999; donations to those in need after the 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean, Cyclone Sidr in Bangladesh in 2007, and the earthquake in Sichuan, China in 2008; and the largest ever donation to the World Food Program — SR500 million (more than $133 million) — also in 2008.
KSrelief was established in 2015 in accordance with King Salman’s directives to be a leading center for relief and humanitarian work, the humanitarian arm of the Kingdom and the only body authorized to deliver the Kingdom’s aid abroad.
He added that the center has been responsible for 2,120 projects, with an overall value of more than $6 billion, in 86 countries in cooperation with 175 international, regional and local partners. Yemen has had the largest share of that aid, which includes projects in the fields of education, health, nutrition, shelter, volunteering, security, water and environmental sanitation, emergency communications, logistics, and more.
The center’s projects have also provided humanitarian aid to Syrian, Yemeni, and Rohingya refugees in various places, as well as to those in need during crises in Sudan, Indonesia, Pakistan, South Africa, Japan, and elsewhere.
