Dr. Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al-Rabeeah, Advisor at the Royal Court and General Supervisor of Riyadh-based King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center, has delivered a lecture on the history and future of Saudi humanitarian assistance. During the lecture which was given yesterday on the sidelines of Warsaw International Humanitarian Expo 2019, currently ongoing in Poland, Al-Rabeeah gave an account on the past and current Saudi humanitarian assistance to the needy everywhere, under directives of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, Crown Prince, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense. Saudi ambassador to Poland Mohammed bin Hussein Madani, Polish foreign ministry officials, diplomatic corps accredited to Poland, activists and those interested in the human and legal work organizations and media representatives attended the lecture. Al-Rabeeah told the audience that Saudi humanitarian assistance has since 1996 to 2018 hit more than $86 billion and reached its targets in 81 countries through Saudi Arabia's humanitarian arm: King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSrelief) which was established in May 2015. He said the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has, since the inception of (KSrelief), implemented 1011 projects in 44 countries at a cost of $3,439,139,000. Saudi Arabia now hosts some 12 million expatriates from different nationalities representing %37 of its population, making it the world's second recipient of immigrants after the United States of America, he added. As regards, Saudi Arabia's assistance to Yemen, Al-Rabeeah said it stood at more than $12 billion, including direct aid to the needy, and Yemeni refugees inside the Kingdom as well as developmental and governmental assistance through the Yemeni central bank. In particular, KSrelief responded to the WHO and UNICEF call to help combat cholera epidemic in Yemen at a cost of $66.7 million and exerted great effort to dismantle land mines in the war-stricken country, Al-Rabeeah said. He cast light on the Saudi national program for separating Siamese, citing the performance of 74 successful operations for Siamese from 20 countries in three continents. He drew the attention to the anti-human acts by the Iran-backed Houthi militias to obstruct the works of KSrelief in Yemen through intercepting assistance-carriers from going to their destinations.
