By IINA
Jeddah : The General Secretariat of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) has launched a number of relief and humanitarian initiatives to assist the Palestinian people in Gaza and the victims of the cyclone in Bangladesh and Indonesia’s tsunami, where work is still ongoing. The OIC’s relief programs include: The second relief caravan for Gaza-based Palestinians.
The OIC is currently concluding final arrangements to dispatch the second caravan to assist the Palestinians in Gaza. This caravan which will be departing Jeddah in the second week of April 2008 is part of the humanitarian campaign for the Palestinians which the Organization had launched in March and includes relief materials, medicines and food items, according to an OIC statement.
On this occasion, the Secretary General Prof. Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, renewed his call to all humanitarian institutions and businessmen to provide further material support for this campaign as the Palestinian people are in dire need of them. It should be recalled that the first assistance caravan organized by the OIC also contained medicines and various medical equipment and was partly financed by Prince Al Waleed Ibn Talal, President of the Kingdom Holding Group. The Zayed Charitable Foundation made an initial donation of $150,000 to the OIC project to support victims of the Sidr Cyclone which devastated Bangladesh in November 2007. The donation was made following a visit by the OIC General Secretariat delegation meant to afford a close understanding and assessment of the damage caused by the cyclone.
The General Secretariat’s Humanitarian Affairs Department conceived a project to build 2000 units of houses and some facilities to the cyclone victims, which is estimated to cost $3 million over two years. Earlier, the Islamic Solidarity Fund had allocated $200,000 to provide urgent relief to the victims. The Department of Humanitarian Affairs in the General Secretariat appeals to humanitarian and charitable institutions to emulate the initiative of the Zayed Foundation and provide the necessary support to complete this project.
A cooperation agreement has been signed by the OIC and the UAE’s Red Crescent Society in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the UAE. By the agreement, the UAE’s Red Crescent would sponsor 5000 children who were orphaned by the tsunami that struck Banda Aceh in Indonesia.
According to the terms of the agreement, the Red Crescent of the United Arab Emirates would sponsor the orphans for 15 years and cover all their expenses relating to shelter, education, health and family care. The Office of the OIC in Indonesia would implement the program and care for the children. It is to be recalled that the OIC’s project to sponsor child victims of the tsunami began in 2005 with the aim of sponsoring 25000 children. So far, there have been commitments to sponsor 15,000 children in association with some OIC Member States and philanthropists from the Muslim world.