AMMAN — The Advisor at the Saudi Royal Court and Supervisor General of King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSRelief), Dr. Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Rabeeah, signed on Thursday two agreements to provide food security and housing support for Syrian and Palestinian refugees and the host community in Jordan. The signing ceremony was attended by the Kingdom’s Ambassador to Jordan Nayef bin Bandar Al-Sudairy and several KSRelief officials, at the Saudi Embassy in Amman.

Dr. Al Rabeeah signed the first agreement with the National Alliance to Combat Hunger and Malnutrition (Najma), worth $2 million, aimed at enhancing food security for needy families in Jordan.

The center will provide a grant to the National Alliance to meet the food needs of Syrian and Palestinian refugees outside the refugee camps and the Jordanian host community for 6 months in all Jordanian governorates.

It will distribute magnetic cards every two months to the beneficiaries through the military consumer establishment. The card will be exclusive for buying food items and the number of beneficiaries is expected to reach 28,865 individuals, representing 5,773 families.

Dr. Al Rabeeah signed the second agreement with the Jordanian Hashemite Charitable Organization to provide housing support, pay water and electricity bills, and cover the house rent of Syrian families with special needs in Irbid Governorate, Jordan, for three years. The project will benefit 22 Syrian refugee families of 109 individuals.

He stressed that KSRelief is the humanitarian arm of the Kingdom and the only body authorized to deliver Saudi aid abroad and help the afflicted peoples. The center is an outlet for the Kingdom's goals in its march toward humanity without borders, embodying its pioneering role and highlighting its identity in humanitarian and relief efforts, he added.

Dr. Al Rabeeah explained that the inception of the center, which was launched in 2015, came at the will of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman to be a leading center for relief and humanitarian work and convey the values of the Kingdom to the world and achieve its moral commitment and mission to support people and provide them with a decent life.

He pointed out the center has delivered 1,919 diverse humanitarian projects in 79 countries around the world, with a value of $5.646 billion through which the center was able to draw a human image to be emulated in terms of neutrality, transparency, and with no regard to color, gender, or borders, in line with its noble mission to assist to all the needy and affected people around the world without any discrimination, and without linking aid to any political or religious agenda.

KSRelief implements its projects with an accurate monitoring mechanism and advanced and fast transportation methods, through cooperation with 144 partners from the various United Nations organizations and international and local non-profit organizations in the beneficiary countries with high reliability, Al Rabeeah said.

The projects and programs offered by the center were diverse according to the beneficiaries and the circumstances in which they live or were exposed to, he said, indicating that the aid covers all sectors of relief and humanitarian work such as shelter, early recovery, protection, education, water and environmental sanitation, nutrition, health, among others.

He underlined that Yemen tops the list of countries benefiting from the center's assistance, with the number of projects implemented in the country amounting to 684 and worth more than $4 billion. He noted that the center pays special attention to women and children, believing that their support and empowerment would help them overcome the challenges they face as they are the backbone of the family.

Dr. Al Rabeeah highlighted the center’s qualitative projects, such as the project to rehabilitate recruited and affected children in Yemen, which directly benefited 530 children and indirectly benefited 60,560 children’s parents.

The Saudi Project for Landmine Clearance (Masam) aims to clear Yemeni lands of mines planted by the Houthi militia. A total of 323,875 mines have been removed since the start of the project.

He also cited the prosthetic limbs project, which distributes prosthetic limbs for those whose limbs have been amputated as a result of mines planted by the Houthi militia.

Dr. Al Rabeeah also praised the Saudi Conjoined Twins Separation Program, which enjoys the patronage the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and the Crown Prince. Since its launch in 1990, the program has carried out 118 surgeries for conjoined twins from 22 countries around the world, including Jordan.

The Kingdom has become a leading country in twin separation operations, which reflects the outstanding progress in the health sector in the Kingdom, Al Rabeeah said. — SPA