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Country joins global war on poverty

According to Salem Obeid Al Dhahiri, Acting Director General of the ZBSNCHF, the MoU was a gradual follow-up to an earlier cooperation agreement signed between the foundation and the UNHCR in 1999 to provide support in Bosnia-Herzegovina for the repatriation of Bosnian refugees.

He hoped that the MoU would help the foundation in collaborating with the UNDP in supporting joint charitable projects in developing and under-developed countries under the directives of the President, His Highness Shaikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, and with the sponsorship of Shaikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces.

Elaborating on the foundation’s ongoing projects, Mr Dhahiri noted that a five-year project of digging 50 wells in drought-hit Africa, at an estimated cost of $15 million was in its first phase.

Other projects in East and West Africa, including reconstruction of the Zanzibar Hospital in Tanzania, which was also being equipped with medical supplies, the building of the Maroni Maternity and Child Health Hospital in the Comoros Islands, the Maternity and Child Health Hospital in Yemen, the supplying of medical equipment to the Shaikh Zayed Hospital in Ramallah (Palestine) and the Shaikha Salama bint Butti Hospital in Nablus and another one in Al Quds.

He noted that the foundation was also supplying aid to hospitals in Iraq and helping in the construction of a maternity and child hospital in Afghanistan.

Within the UAE, the foundation has launched projects for orphans and geriatric care in Abu Dhabi and Ras Al Khaimah.

Commenting on the significance of the MoU, Nadir Hadj-Hammou, UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident Representative, who signed it on behalf of the international agency, lauded the active humanitarian support of the foundation worldwide.

He said the MoU was being inked at a time when the consolidation of international humanitarian and charitable efforts was becoming imperative.

Urging greater efforts in enabling the LDC’s to meet their citizens’ basic needs, including health, nutrition and education, Mr Hadj-Hammou said the UNDP’s 2003 Human Development Report indicated that 54 LDC’s have suffered from a decrease of national income. It said that 31 countries suffered abject poverty, adding that 1.2 billion people globally earned less than $1 per day. About 113 million children do not receive primary education, while more than half of the total number of women in the world still suffer from illiteracy and 11 million children are dying from malnutrition.

Mr Hadj-Hammou said the signing of the MoU was part of the humanitarian action consolidating efforts in alleviating poverty and achieving the Millennium Development Goals.

He noted that both parties had the intention to improve living conditions in the worst affected parts of the world.

“We expect to transform this MoU on the development ground through building hospitals, education and training centres, schools, centres for special needs, water and sanitation projects,” he said.

The two-year partnership will help the two parties in exchanging information, funding projects and having understanding of each other’s objectives.

• UAE