UAE Red Crescent spends almost Dh624 million on humanitarian work at home and abroad

They include projects to help Emirati families, as well as overseas programmes such as relief work and reconstruction programmes.

UAE// The UAE Red Crescent spent almost Dh624 million on humanitarian programmes, developmental and reconstruction projects and sponsoring of orphans last year.

According to a report obtained by Al Ittihad newspaper, the Arabic language sister paper of The National, the programmes, activities and projects carried out last year by the UAE Red Crescent across the Emirates amounted to Dh164,968,369 and benefited 455,222 Emirati families.

This included:

Dh46,884,932 assisting widows, divorcees, abandoned wives, wives of sick husbands;

Dh4,068,651 on programmes to support prisoners and their families;

Dh20,212,668 on medical aid, benefitting 1,643 families;

Dh30,053,104 assisting students benefitting 7,223 families;

Dh4,851,42 to special need programmes;

Dh11,986,975 to assisting UAE orphans;

Dh20,901,111 on seasonal programmes including handing out Iftar meals during Ramadan, Zakaat Al-Fitr charity, Eid clothing, sheep [for Eid Al Adha], helping pilgrims and the distribution of school supplies;

Dh1,967,129 on community service programmes;

The overseas humanitarian programmes, relief operations, developmental projects, reconstruction programmes and sponsoring of orphans carried out by the UAE Red Crescent last year totaled Dh458, 724,511, benefitting thousands of families from 60 countries.

This included:

Dh135,356,201 on relief operations covering 35 countries, with Syria, Somalia, Yemen, Libya and Palestine among the top beneficiaries;

Dh19,597,850 in seasonal operations during Ramadan and Eid Al-Adha, with more than 1,000,800 beneficiaries in a variety of countries;

Dh9,371,657 for the Eid Al Adha's sheep project.

The total value of aid from major benefactors for specific beneficiaries, of their choice, was Dh6,598,600 and include relief and emergency operations in crisis-affected countries.

The UAE humanitarian charity also helped funded 40 clinics in a number of states, 16 schools, 11 endowments, four centres for people with special needs, seven orphanages, renovation of water networks, the drilling of 2,042 wells and construction of 740 mosques.

The number of orphans sponsored by the UAE Red Crescent last year totaled 69,474 - an 11 per cent increase on 2011.