KSrelief: Saudi Arabia Has Supported 156 Countries at a Cost of More than SAR 184 Billion

RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA: The Supervisor General of King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre (KSrelief), Dr. Abdullah Al Rabeeah, recently disclosed that the amount of aid provided by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to needy countries, according to the Saudi Aid Platform, exceeds SAR 184 billion for aid to 156 countries. Projects and other assistance include the categories of development, relief and philanthropy, grants and loans; the extensive scale of the aid, he added, reflected the Kingdom’s leading global humanitarian and development roles.

The Supervisor General made these remarks during a press conference held today at KSrelief's headquarters in Riyadh to discuss the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia's ongoing support for the UN Yemen Humanitarian Response Plan (YHRP) 2020. The aim of this support, he said, was to improve living conditions and alleviate the suffering of the Yemeni people which has resulted from the current humanitarian crisis the country is going through. 

Dr. Abdullah Al Moallem, Head of KSrelief’s Health and Environmental Aid Department, praised the pioneering humanitarian role played by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia since its unification by the late King Abdulaziz Al Saud.  He added that the Saudi Aid Platform was created according to directives from the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, and was being supervised by KSrelief. The platform highlights the amount and types of aid the Kingdom provides to countries and people in need around the world. 

Regarding Yemen, Dr. Al Moallem affirmed that the Kingdom has been proactive in extending a helping hand to its Yemeni brothers and sisters for many years, long before the start of the country’s current crisis. He added that Saudi Arabia’s leadership established KSrelief to be a leading international center for helping societies deal with natural disasters and other crises. The main aim of KSrelief, he said, was to provide impartial assistance to alleviate human suffering and enable all people to live decent, dignified lives.  He also said that the Kingdom had provided, through KSrelief, more than USD 17.3 billion to Yemen across all humanitarian sectors, and included support for the Yemeni government and the Central Bank of Yemen in the amount of USD 3.5 billion.

Dr. Al Moallem also pointed out that the Kingdom had answered the first UN appeal for aid for Yemen with a donation of USD 274 million, and that Saudi Arabia was the first country in the world to provide full funding for such an appeal. For the YHRP in 2020, the Kingdom provided USD 500 million of the estimated humanitarian need of USD 2.4 billion. YHRP 2020, he said, focused on fighting COVID-19, improving the nutrition situation, providing food security, improving and preserving the dignity of displaced families, and preventing violence. Dr. Al Moallem strongly denounced the Houthi militia's obstruction of humanitarian aid to targeted beneficiaries across Yemen.

Dr. Al Moallem stated that the Kingdom had implemented 12 projects in the fields of health, nutrition, and WASH (USD 87 million) in support for the YHRP, including a project to maintain the provision of basic nutrition services to reduce the death rate for children under five years of age, in partnership with WHO (USD 5.5 million) for 46,857 beneficiaries. Also included were a response project to address the COVID-19 pandemic – phase one (USD 10 million) for 16 million beneficiaries; phase two of this project was funded for (USD 3 million) for 350,000 beneficiaries. A project to support the provision of health service packages and support the coordination of the health sector cluster (USD 20.5 million) served 6,941,000 beneficiaries. 

He further explained that KSrelief had also implemented an integrated emergency health response project to ensure the continuity of services and expand their scope through integrated prevention of COVID-19 (USD 11,200,000) for 4,439,000 beneficiaries, an emergency COVID-19 response project for targeted health facilities in a number of Yemeni governorates (USD 4 million) for 18,270,000 beneficiaries, and a project to support the health response for IDPs and refugees during the COVID pandemic in Yemen (USD 3 million) for 3,685,000 beneficiaries. 

Dr. Al Moallem went on to explain that KSrelief had also implemented projects to improve access to safe drinking water, personal use water, and health care services (USD 7 million) for 653,446 beneficiaries. A similar project was implemented to improve access to water (USD 9,200,000) for 2,500,000 beneficiaries; another provided preventive and life-saving food intervention to address malnutrition among children and women in Yemen (USD 7.6 million ) for 175,000 beneficiaries. Support was also provided to continue qualitative projects in Yemen, including artificial limbs centers, dialysis centers, the "MASAM" project for mine clearance, and projects to address COVID-19 by funding and following up projects to provide medical supplies for quarantine areas, and for land, sea and airports. Health facilities were also supplied with state-of-the-art ventilators.

The Head of KSrelief’s Urgent Aid Department, Mr. Fahad Al Osaimy, stated that the Kingdom, represented by KSrelief, provided a number of projects to support the YHRP 2020 in the fields of food security and shelter. A joint executive program was implemented to support food security and school nutrition (USD 138 million) for 10,594,000 beneficiaries suffering from food insecurity across Yemeni. The project’s activities included the purchase and distribution of 81,963 tons of food and nutritional supplements to people suffering from acute and moderate malnutrition.

Mr. Al Osaimy stated that KSrelief had also implemented a joint project to meet the food security and nutritional needs (USD 40 million) of 2,333,333 among the most vulnerable families in 23 Yemeni governorates. A joint project to support shelter and camp management and provide non-food items to IDP families in Yemen (USD 17 million) was carried out for 421,384 beneficiaries, and a joint emergency response and aid project for IDPs in southern Yemen (USD 10.5 million) assisted 232,468 beneficiaries by rehabilitating displacement sites affected by the humanitarian crisis. This project improved standards of living and provided the IDPs with safe access to shelter, and secured shelter materials in the governorates of Taiz, Ma’rib and Aden.

He also stated that KSrelief had implemented relief projects in the food security sector for a total cost of USD 34,556,364, serving 1,148,022 targeted beneficiaries. He added that 11 relief and humanitarian projects had been implemented last year (USD 48,988,000) serving 7.6 million beneficiaries. More than 70,000 food baskets and 9.6 thousand tons of dates were distributed to meet food needs across Yemen, and 2,930 tents, 18,330 blankets, 4,040 mattresses, 38,990 clothing kits, and 2,945 shelter kits were also distributed.

Head of KSrelief’s Community Support Department, Dr. Hana Omar, explained that the Kingdom had implemented many projects in the community support sector, with a total of 24 projects in the fields of education, protection, early recovery, improving livelihoods, agricultural and fishing (USD 49.09 million) with 749,463 beneficiaries. 

She emphasized that 10 projects were implemented in the education sector for a total cost of USD 20.23 million; these projects benefited 420,340 people and included activities to support the continuity of educational services, helping the education sector to recover from the effects of crisis and displacement, improving access to educational services for IDPs, supporting children’s access to quality educational opportunities, and supporting access to educational opportunities for children affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.  

Dr. Omar indicated that the protection sector implemented 7 projects (USD 11.11 million), benefiting 260,989 people, including the child protection sector as part of YHRP 2020. She added that the early recovery and improving livelihoods sector implemented 4 projects (USD 6.7 million), benefiting 4,180 people, including vocational training and work skills support projects.

The agriculture and fisheries sector implemented 3 projects (USD 11 million), benefiting 63,954 people, and included an emergency agricultural assistance project to mitigate the effects of COVID-19 on the population of the Shabwah governorate; it also helped to improve food security and nutrition. Dr. Omar further stated that another of KSrelief’s important qualitative projects was the Child Soldiers Rehabilitation Program for supporting children associated with armed groups and others severely affected by the conflict in Yemen. This program aims to empower and support the families of 580 recruited and affected children.

The Representative from KSrelief Volunteer Programs Department, Noura Al Jamhoor, explained that the Kingdom has provided many volunteer programs in support of the YHRP 2020. These programs included specialized surgical campaigns, projects to combat blindness and its causes, open-heart surgeries and cardiac catheterizations for adults and children, and training and educational programs.

She added that the specialized volunteer medical projects included health education to transfer Saudi medical expertise to local medical cadres, securing medical equipment and devices to support the Yemeni health sector, and alleviating the suffering of families with limited income. Ten such projects have been implemented (USD 1,601,000) and have provided urgent medical care for approximately 1,000 beneficiaries throughout Yemen.

Ms. Al Jamhoor explained that the combating blindness projects provided eye surgeries and other treatments for patients, health education, eyeglasses and medications, and support for the Yemeni Ministry of Health. A total of 25 volunteer medical campaigns have been implemented (USD 2,531,666), serving 125,000 beneficiaries. The open-heart surgeries and cardiac catheterizations campaigns have alleviated the suffering of many people with heart disease, provided patients with medications, and increased the capabilities of Yemeni health cadres. Twelve cardiac campaigns have been implemented (USD 5,953,386) for 2,940 beneficiaries. 

Ms. Al Jamhoor stated that training and educational programs have also qualified local trainers for training in the field of first aid, while a CPR program provided trainees with experience and skills in basic life support and CPR.