ABU DHABI // UAE aid to Syrian refugees has topped Dh300 million in two years.
The most generous donors have been the Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan Foundation (Dh106.53m), the Government (Dh99.14m) and the Emirates Red Crescent (Dh92.95m). Other organisations have contributed independently.
The figures were published by the Ministry of International Cooperation and Development before the second International Humanitarian Pledging Conference for Syria on Wednesday in Kuwait.
Most of the aid money, Dh122m, has been spent on providing refugees with food, closely followed by expenditure of Dh117m on shelter and furniture, clothes and blankets. There have also been vaccine drives to ensure better health.
As the number of Syrians fleeing the war quickly multiplied, the UAE stepped up its efforts in all countries where Syrians have sought refuge.
In Jordan, where most of the aid (Dh187.36m) was spent, the UAE built an Emirates-Jordanian Camp in Mrijib Al Fhood near Al Zarqa city.
The camp, which impressed international aid organisations – the UN’s representative to Jordan, Andrew Harper, called it a “5-star camp” – cost Dh36m and has playgrounds, television halls for children and women, a medical centre and a kitchen.
The camp is home to 4,000 refugees and will soon host more as the Emirates Red Crescent has just announced an expansion to accommodate 10,000 refugees.
The UAE, together with Unicef, the United Nations children’s organisation, has also opened schools in the area and has joined with Britain and Norway to host an education project worth Dh9.8m, funded by the British government.
The Red Crescent has provided the UN’s refugee organisation UNHCR with 600 caravans at a cost of Dh6.7m to build the Zaatari camp.
The UAE also built what is believed to be the largest field hospital in the world, in Jordan in August 2012. The hospital has 80 doctors and nurses, with various clinics. More than 500 babies have been born, and baby No 501 was named after the President, Sheikh Khalifa.
After Jordan, refugees in Lebanon have been helped with Dh108.75m in aid, mostly in the form of food.
While organisations in the UAE have shown interest in working in Lebanon on a larger scale, they have said it has been easier in Jordan.
The smallest amount of aid (Dh230,000) has been delivered to those displaced inside Syria itself, in Turkey (Dh1.84m), where the government has taken responsibility for the refugees, and in Iraq (Dh2m).
Money from the Dh126m raised in December as part of the “Our heart is with the people of Syria” campaign has already been put to use, with more than 150,000 items of winter clothing bought for children.
The Emirates Red Crescent said it would soon deliver additional money to refugees in Jordan and at other camps.
Naema Al Mihiri, deputy general secretary for relief and development at the Emirates Red Crescent, said work would continue just as aggressively this year to provide refugees with assistance.
She said her agency and more than 20 other NGOs had pledged a total of Dh1.46 billion in aid to refugees, nearly Dh130m of which is from the UAE. The UN is said to be seeking $6.5 billion (Dh24bn) at the Kuwait conference.
Ms Al Mihiri said the Emirates Red Crescent has already started drawing up a roadmap for the next year, with most of the aid going towards moving refugees out of tents and into caravans to protect them from harsh weather.
Ahmed Al Dhaheri, head of the Zayed Charitable and Humanitarian Foundation, said a lot of money sent to Syrians may not appear in the ministry’s statistics as some organisations have yet to disclose the amount of aid they were sending.
osalem@thenational.ae