RIYADH, 13 February 2005 — A Saudi diplomat has been named ambassador of the United Nations World Food Program (WFP).
“I am honored to be the first Saudi citizen selected for this post,” Ambassador Abdul Aziz Arrukban told Arab News. It is the first time that WFP has opened its office in Saudi Arabia after operating from Dubai in the past.
Educated in the US, Arrukban worked closely with various Saudi charitable organizations and Saudi committees respectively for Palestine, Iraq and Sudan before he moved to the WFP as its ambassador.
Arrukban said his new assignment is a tribute to the Kingdom for its contribution to the cause of poverty alleviation and support to WFP for more than 25 years. He said that of the 800 million impoverished people benefiting from WFP, 60 percent are Muslims. Again, of the 24,000 who die every day, 18,000 are children.
Arrukban said Saudi Arabia has donated over $500 million to the United Nations agency during the last 25 years. The latest project taken up within the framework of the cooperation program involves the adoption of 200,000 families in Palestine.
“This program is being pursued under the umbrella of the Saudi-Palestinian committee headed by Minister of Interior Prince Naif. Of these, 100,000 are from the West Bank and the remaining from Gaza,” he pointed out.
The ambassador said an important aspect of the family adoption program is that nothing is imported from abroad.
“We procured all the goods from farmers, especially those close to the (Israeli security) wall. Thus the Saudi-WFP partnership is helping both the Palestinian farmers and the families in those two regions. We want to do more projects in the future to help the Palestinian economy, besides alleviating hunger.”
Asked about his priorities as WFP ambassador in Saudi Arabia, Arrukban said he would like to extend this partnership to other parts of the world, notably in Southeast Asia, where the tsunami disaster has played havoc with the lives of millions of people.
“Another priority of WFP will be to work with mothers. Because once you take care of the mothers, we will have healthy children. We would also like to take care of their education, including those children trapped in the war zones. In all this, we shall be counting on the Kingdom’s support,” he added.
The Kingdom signed an agreement with the World Food Program to distribute 200,000 baskets of food among Palestinian families in Gaza and West Bank at a cost of SR23 million.
According to Dr. Saaed Al-Harithy, chairman of the Saudi Executive Committee for Palestinian Relief, the project would be implemented immediately to meet the needs of poor Palestinian families as well as organizations serving Palestinian orphans and widows.
He said the committee has implemented 34 programs for Palestinians at a total cost of more than SR700 million. The committee, which collected more than $150 million in a telethon fund-raiser held in April 2002 in support of the Palestinian people, had built 600 houses in six Palestinian cities.
