KFAED grants $88m to refugees, displaced persons in past 7 years
Fund plays effective role in pushing economic and social progress
KUWAIT: Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development (KFAED) has given multiple grants worth $88.1 million to refugees and the displaced throughout the world between 2016 and 2022. KFAED, one of the Kuwait’s main philanthropic body, dedicated substantial grants for cancer patients among refugees and relocated persons, provided diverse healthcare and improved living conditions for distressed people in Syria, Bangladesh, the Kurdistan region of Iraq and Yemen.
The fund’s acting director general Waleed Al-Bahar said in an interview with KUNA that the fund’s global humanitarian policy is primarily aimed at providing financial assistance for diverse sectors, namely infrastructure, healthcare and education, among others. Elaborating, Bahar said KFAED’s policy also aims at helping refugees and people in similar difficult conditions, and victims of conflicts and disturbances as well as natural catastrophes.
Touching on the policy’s basic principles, Bahar affirmed that the strategy is broader, covering various aspects, such as giving a hand in efforts to restore peace in troubled areas and attaining sustainable economic and social development. Furthermore, Bahar affirmed that the fund plays an effective role in pushing economic and social progress in Arab and developing countries by providing financial and technical support.
Ahead of preparing aid dispatches, KFAED decision-makers examine areas of dire need for sending urgent assistance. Shedding further light on the work mechanisms, Bahar said they study the needs in such badly-stricken regions. Some of such tasks are done in coordination with relevant UN agencies and other partners. Once the relief supplies have been delivered, the leading personnel ensure that they have reached the targeted segments and have proven effective in alleviating their hardships.
In Lebanon, KFAED gave $1 million to the Children’s Cancer Center of Lebanon, which treats Syrian refugee patients, in 2016. The same year, it provided $9 million for the King Hussein Foundation Cancer Foundation and Center in Jordan. Some $9 million went for Lebanon’s Council of Construction and Development to finance development projects in 2016, and $ 1 million was given to King Hussein Cancer Foundation and Center in Jordan in 2017.
In 2017, KFAED earmarked $1 million to relieve Rohingya refugees living in squalid conditions in Bangladesh, a sum of $1 million was dedicated for King Hussein Center in 2018, while $10 million was dedicated for improving living conditions for Syrian refugees in Kurdistan in Iraq in 2018, Bahar told KUNA. He added some $2 million worth of aid was allotted for the Children’s Cancer Center in Lebanon in 2019. Also in 2019, the fund granted $9 million for building schools for Syrian refugees in Lebanon and sent $2 million to the King Hussein Foundation in Jordan.
The next year, it granted $14 million for the Children’s Cancer Center in Lebanon and $2.4 million for relief projects for Syrian refugees in Lebanon. In 2020, $2.6 million went for Syrian refugees in Iraq, in addition to $2 million for King Hussein Foundation in Jordan the year after. As for the impoverished Rohingya, many living in squalor in haphazardly built camps in Bangladesh, KFAED extended its long and generous hand, relieving them with $3.7 million in 2021. That same year, it granted $3.5 million for utilities at the Syrian refugee camps in Lebanon, followed with $1.9 million for basic healthcare for them and $1.5 million also for them later. Between 2021 and 2022, KFAED granted $20 million to the UN agency that cares for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA), in addition to $2 million for Yemen. In 2022, $2.1 million was dispatched for war-afflicted Yemen.
KFAED, the state’s main humanitarian agency, was established in Dec 1961, deemed at the time as the first such foundation in the entire Middle East. Humanitarian aid is part of Kuwait’s external policy and officials have affirmed advocacy of “humanitarian diplomacy,” Kuwait’s exclusive category of diplomacy. The UN had earlier designated Kuwait as the “center of humanitarian action”.