TABUK — Saudi Arabia has been supporting internally displaced and Syrian refugees abroad for the last five years through Saudi National Campaign to Support Syrians Brothers, which was launched in 2012. It has spent SR850 million on their education, healthcare, housing and relief services. The Saudi campaign has set up offices in Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon to take care of Syrian refugees. Jordan hosts the largest refugee camp in Zaatari and accommodates 90,000 Syrian men, women and children in addition to 1.2 million refugees who live outside. The Kingdom supports nearly one million Syrian refugees in Turkey and 1.5 million Syrians living in Lebanon. "We have set out a strategy to support Syrian refugees from the very beginning of the crisis to provide them with integrated services," said a Saudi official who requested anonymity. "The Saudi campaign runs one of the largest relief programs in the world," he added. The campaign has sent more than 3,500 relief caravans to the Zaatari camp. "We are working on dispatching 1,000 more caravans," the official said. The campaign has rented 3,800 buildings in Lebanon and Jordan to accommodate people of special needs and widows for six months. "We have made allocations to rent 2,000 buildings for another six months to accommodate refugees who need special care." Saudi Arabia has established thousands of fire-proof tents in Jordan and Turkey and established and furnished 14 mosques in Zaatari. "We have distributed 400,000 food baskets among the displaced people inside Syria as well as Syrian refugees abroad," the official said. "We have also distributed 1.2 million iftar meals among the refugees during Ramadan," he added. Meat of 1,300 sacrificial animals was distributed among 9,000 families during Eid Al-Adha festival while 180,000 packets of Haj sacrificial meat were distributed among refugees in Zaatari and 300,000 packets of bread at refugee camps in Lebanon. "We have established four mobile bakeries in Turkey to supply 120,000 pieces of bread daily," the official told Okaz/Saudi Gazette. Apart from 10,000 packets of meals, the Kingdom distributed thousands of tons of rice, date and other foodstuff among the refugees on the Syrian-Jordan border. The campaign sent 15 relief caravans with more than 700 trucks carrying foodstuffs, tents, blankets and clothes to Jordan and 80 caravans to Syria as well as 10 plane loads of relief supplies to Turkey, carrying 10,000 tons of foodstuffs. It also sent 80 caravans of relief supplies produced in China and Turkey to Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. The campaign has set up 13 specialized medical clinics, a special unit for psychological treatment, a laboratory, an x-ray unit and a pharmacy in Zaatari. These clinics have treated 500,000 people. The Kingdom has supplied 17 well-equipped ambulance vans for camps in Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon. The campaign has sponsored natural and cesarean deliveries of 1,300 refugee mothers, distributed 20,000 baby milk powder cans for children in Zaatari and provided counseling to 5,000 Syrian students in Lebanon. During winter, the campaign arranged 6,500 fire places in Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan and supplied 6.5 million pieces of winter clothes. Speaking about educational services, the official said the campaign granted 6,000 scholarships to Syrian students in Lebanon. A Saudi education and training center was established in Zaatari. About 200 students have so far graduated from the center after receiving training in tailoring, computer science, drawing and cooking. An adult education center has been set up in Zaatari. The campaign has distributed 450,000 school bags with stationery items among Syrian students in refugee camps in the three countries.
