RIYADH: There is a popular saying in Arabic that translates to “hide what you give with your right hand from your left,” as according to Islamic teachings it is frowned upon to reveal favors done for those who are distressed or less fortunate.
Saudi Arabia, being the cradle of Islam, has refrained from revealing what it is doing to help people in dire need, while on the other hand there are rights advocacy groups, such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW), which are making false accusations against the Kingdom with misleading reports on human rights.
This organizations are making this reports despite the many initiatives and the noble assistance the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is providing to the distressed or less fortunate people, which makes it a global leader in humanitarian relief.
These rights advocacy groups do not realize the humanitarian efforts by the Kingdom, and the international media, giving one-sided coverage, do not cover such humanitarian efforts. When the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSRELIEF) last month released its annual report on humanitarian assistance, none of them reported on the Kingdom’s efforts.
According to the annual report, the ongoing humanitarian work makes the Kingdom the leading international provider of grants, assistance and relief.
The statistics show that in terms of percentage of GDP allocated for this assistance, the Kingdom ranks highest at the international level. This assistance consists of the provision of aid to help affected countries to cope with drought and disasters, and alleviate the suffering of victims of earthquakes and floods as well as non-recoverable aid and soft loans for the implementation of socio-economic development programs and projects.
These advocacy groups, who have failed to report on inhumane assaults by Zionists in Israel, what Zionists are doing in Palestine, the people’s sufferings in Syria by Bashar Assad and his forces, in Yemen by Houthi militants, and Muslims being persecuted in Myanmar, are involved in a negative campaign against the Kingdom, which has launched series of humanitarian programs for distressed Yemenis, Syrians and others worldwide.
The Kingdom launched a program for the separation of conjoined twins which has restored hope of a better life for rare cases that previously were untreated. As a result, the Kingdom has joined the ranks of the most trailblazing countries in this field.
Moreover, the Kingdom is supporting ongoing vaccination campaigns against numerous diseases such as measles, poliomyelitis and malaria, in order to safeguard public health during disasters.
The Kingdom showed itself eager to be the first to respond to the urgent relief appeal by the United Nations when the Yemeni people were affected by the recent crisis. Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman ordered the allocation of $274 million so that KSRELIEF could ensure the availability of foodstuff, medicines and maternal and child care, rehabilitate health facilities in Yemen and provide humanitarian assistance for refugees and displaced people.
KSRELIEF has signed agreements with UN agencies, including WHO and UNICEF, and various humanitarian organizations to alleviate the suffering of the Yemeni people and implemented more than 20 medical assistance programs from which 15,982,060 Yemenis benefited.
In addition to providing health services, KSRELIEF carried out numerous relief and welfare programs, to the tune of $416 million last year, from which more than 62 million Yemenis benefited.
Moreover, the Kingdom granted temporary work permits to Yemenis and launched an online education program for one million Yemeni students in Yemen and other countries.
The Red Crescent and the Red Cross have ranked the Kingdom as the world leader in supporting humanitarian and relief work.
Commenting on humanitarian assistance, Abdullah Al-Rabeeah, supervisor general of KSRELIEF said, while presenting the annual report, “Humanitarian projects consistently undertaken by the Kingdom are in line with the teachings of our religion, which commands us to provide relief to the needy and to help them.”
Moreover, the Saudi National Campaign to Support Syrian Refugees offers humanitarian support to the Syrians in distress, many of them living at the borders, and taking refuge in various camps in Jordan and Lebanon. The campaign continuously provides meals, clothes, education and medical assistance to the refugees, offering them much needed relief.
The medical assistance arm of the Saudi Specialized Clinics campaign at Al-Zaatari Refugee Camp in Jordan is providing medical, therapeutic, awareness and preventive services unabated to thousands of Syrian refugees, and also distributes free medicines and essentials including milk for children with a significant impact on improving the living conditions of the refugees in the camps.
“Foreign aid has been on the top of the Kingdom’s list and it has emerged as one of the top donors worldwide since the 1970s,” said the Saudi American Public Relation Affairs Committee (SAPRAC). If you are to exclude Arab countries, it ranks as the world’s largest humanitarian donor, it added.
In a speech delivered by Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir at the United Nations headquarters in New York in 2015, he explained that the Kingdom is considered among the world’s ten biggest donors of developmental assistance, citing that it was ranked sixth according to a 2014 UN statistical report.
He further noted that the total amount donated by the Kingdom over the last four decades surpassed $115 billion, benefiting more than 90 countries all over the world.
Further corroborating the foreign minister’s claim, according to the Global Humanitarian Assistance database, and a study conducted by the World Bank between 1975 and 2016, total Saudi aid contributed to over 90 countries amounted up to $115 billion (nearly 3.7 percent of Saudi Arabia’s annual GDP).
Besides, Yemen and Syria, other major beneficiaries include the Palestinians, and the Burmese Muslims given residency permits by the Kingdom.
Moreover, the Kingdom donated $158 million for humanitarian purposes to Bangladesh after a cyclone hit in 2007; Pakistan was given the largest contribution in history of the World Food Program in 2008, which was estimated to be around $500 million, with a further $220 million in 2010 pledged; in the same year, the Kingdom donated $50 million to the emergency response fund of the UN for Haiti earthquake relief, and by the end of 2010 it had financed 472 development projects in 77 countries with the amount totaling SR33,258.99 million.
Saudi Arabia, being the cradle of Islam, has refrained from revealing what it is doing to help people in dire need, while on the other hand there are rights advocacy groups, such as Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch (HRW), which are making false accusations against the Kingdom with misleading reports on human rights.
This organizations are making this reports despite the many initiatives and the noble assistance the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is providing to the distressed or less fortunate people, which makes it a global leader in humanitarian relief.
These rights advocacy groups do not realize the humanitarian efforts by the Kingdom, and the international media, giving one-sided coverage, do not cover such humanitarian efforts. When the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSRELIEF) last month released its annual report on humanitarian assistance, none of them reported on the Kingdom’s efforts.
According to the annual report, the ongoing humanitarian work makes the Kingdom the leading international provider of grants, assistance and relief.
The statistics show that in terms of percentage of GDP allocated for this assistance, the Kingdom ranks highest at the international level. This assistance consists of the provision of aid to help affected countries to cope with drought and disasters, and alleviate the suffering of victims of earthquakes and floods as well as non-recoverable aid and soft loans for the implementation of socio-economic development programs and projects.
These advocacy groups, who have failed to report on inhumane assaults by Zionists in Israel, what Zionists are doing in Palestine, the people’s sufferings in Syria by Bashar Assad and his forces, in Yemen by Houthi militants, and Muslims being persecuted in Myanmar, are involved in a negative campaign against the Kingdom, which has launched series of humanitarian programs for distressed Yemenis, Syrians and others worldwide.
The Kingdom launched a program for the separation of conjoined twins which has restored hope of a better life for rare cases that previously were untreated. As a result, the Kingdom has joined the ranks of the most trailblazing countries in this field.
Moreover, the Kingdom is supporting ongoing vaccination campaigns against numerous diseases such as measles, poliomyelitis and malaria, in order to safeguard public health during disasters.
The Kingdom showed itself eager to be the first to respond to the urgent relief appeal by the United Nations when the Yemeni people were affected by the recent crisis. Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman ordered the allocation of $274 million so that KSRELIEF could ensure the availability of foodstuff, medicines and maternal and child care, rehabilitate health facilities in Yemen and provide humanitarian assistance for refugees and displaced people.
KSRELIEF has signed agreements with UN agencies, including WHO and UNICEF, and various humanitarian organizations to alleviate the suffering of the Yemeni people and implemented more than 20 medical assistance programs from which 15,982,060 Yemenis benefited.
In addition to providing health services, KSRELIEF carried out numerous relief and welfare programs, to the tune of $416 million last year, from which more than 62 million Yemenis benefited.
Moreover, the Kingdom granted temporary work permits to Yemenis and launched an online education program for one million Yemeni students in Yemen and other countries.
The Red Crescent and the Red Cross have ranked the Kingdom as the world leader in supporting humanitarian and relief work.
Commenting on humanitarian assistance, Abdullah Al-Rabeeah, supervisor general of KSRELIEF said, while presenting the annual report, “Humanitarian projects consistently undertaken by the Kingdom are in line with the teachings of our religion, which commands us to provide relief to the needy and to help them.”
Moreover, the Saudi National Campaign to Support Syrian Refugees offers humanitarian support to the Syrians in distress, many of them living at the borders, and taking refuge in various camps in Jordan and Lebanon. The campaign continuously provides meals, clothes, education and medical assistance to the refugees, offering them much needed relief.
The medical assistance arm of the Saudi Specialized Clinics campaign at Al-Zaatari Refugee Camp in Jordan is providing medical, therapeutic, awareness and preventive services unabated to thousands of Syrian refugees, and also distributes free medicines and essentials including milk for children with a significant impact on improving the living conditions of the refugees in the camps.
“Foreign aid has been on the top of the Kingdom’s list and it has emerged as one of the top donors worldwide since the 1970s,” said the Saudi American Public Relation Affairs Committee (SAPRAC). If you are to exclude Arab countries, it ranks as the world’s largest humanitarian donor, it added.
In a speech delivered by Foreign Minister Adel Al-Jubeir at the United Nations headquarters in New York in 2015, he explained that the Kingdom is considered among the world’s ten biggest donors of developmental assistance, citing that it was ranked sixth according to a 2014 UN statistical report.
He further noted that the total amount donated by the Kingdom over the last four decades surpassed $115 billion, benefiting more than 90 countries all over the world.
Further corroborating the foreign minister’s claim, according to the Global Humanitarian Assistance database, and a study conducted by the World Bank between 1975 and 2016, total Saudi aid contributed to over 90 countries amounted up to $115 billion (nearly 3.7 percent of Saudi Arabia’s annual GDP).
Besides, Yemen and Syria, other major beneficiaries include the Palestinians, and the Burmese Muslims given residency permits by the Kingdom.
Moreover, the Kingdom donated $158 million for humanitarian purposes to Bangladesh after a cyclone hit in 2007; Pakistan was given the largest contribution in history of the World Food Program in 2008, which was estimated to be around $500 million, with a further $220 million in 2010 pledged; in the same year, the Kingdom donated $50 million to the emergency response fund of the UN for Haiti earthquake relief, and by the end of 2010 it had financed 472 development projects in 77 countries with the amount totaling SR33,258.99 million.
