PRESS RELEASE
1 December 2008
OPEC Fund donates $3 million to UNRWA for Gaza emergency
The Vienna-based OPEC Fund for International Development (OFID) has announced that it will donate $3 million to UNRWA to help the Agency cope with the emergency in Gaza.
The announcement, made on the Day of International Solidarity with the Palestinian People, 28 November, said that the donation was for food aid and medicines.
Welcoming the donation, the Commissioner-General of UNRWA, Karen Koning AbuZayd, said that it was a timely and generous gesture which would help in meeting the escalating needs of a civilian population which was under grinding pressure from the closure of Gaza. She called on other donors in the West and in the Arab world to follow OFID’s example.
This donation brings to $10 million the pledges made by OFID to UNRWA. On 8 October the Commissioner-General signed in Vienna an agreement whereby OFID have pledged $5 million to build schools in the reconstructed camp of Nahr El Bared in North Lebanon.
Document Sources: OPEC Fund for International Development, United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)
Subject: Assistance, Food, Gaza Strip, Health, Refugees and displaced persons
Publication Date: 01/12/2008