JEDDAH: The Kingdom’s “Education Caravan” destined for Gaza will get under way in Ramadan, the Organization of the Islamic Conference announced yesterday. The caravan aims to help the education sector in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory. This includes providing school buses, student and teacher materials and rebuilding demolished schools.
“What better time to start the campaign than the holy month of Ramadan?” said Atta Almannan Bakheet, OIC’s assistant secretary-general for humanitarian affairs. “Ramadan is a month of giving.”
The education campaign, the fourth in a series of charity campaigns organized by the OIC as part of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques’ initiative, is the first specialized caravan to help the people of Gaza. Three previous caravans succeeded in collecting 2,800 tons of relief supplies worth SR30 million. The third caravan alone managed to provide 1,000 tons of food and medical equipment, including 10 ambulances, worth a total of SR12 million.
The OIC, in cooperation with the Jeddah Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Private School Committee and local bookstores, will organize the education caravan.
The campaign aims to provide a school bag, complete with required school material for each one of Gaza’s students. The funds will also help rebuild schools destroyed during the latest Israeli offensive on Gaza. Chalkboards, tables, chairs and school buses will also be provided, he added.
According to Bakheet, the OIC has managed to move 8,000 tons of humanitarian aid from the OIC and other international aid agencies to Al-Areej for distribution in Gaza. Only 5,000 tons, however, have reached Gaza because of the closed Egyptian-Palestinian border. “We thank the Egyptian government, which has made tremendous efforts to help the OIC in getting humanitarian aid across,” he said. “The obstacle preventing the remaining humanitarian aid reaching the people of Gaza is Israel,” he said.
OIC representatives will meet the JCCI Private Schools’ Committee to discuss the campaign details next week.
