Kuwait is proceeding forward with fulfilling its humanitarian duties toward neighboring and friendly countries, First Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah affirmed Monday.
Sheikh Sabah Khaled made this remark at the opening ceremony of the 5th annual conference on "Effective Partnership and Information Sharing for Better Humanitarian Action" which is held here under his patronage.
He said that the State of Kuwait has taken upon itself to assist those who are being affected by natural and man-made disasters. He added that 1.3 percent of the country's GDP is allocated to humanitarian aid; a percentage that exceeds international standards.
The Minister pointed out that the participation of a number of regional and international humanitarian organizations in this event provides an excellent opportunity to build various collaborations to achieve philanthropic goals, especially those with respect to the Syrian crisis.
He added that the three-day conference is held amidst "the worst humanitarian crises in the modern history where hundreds of thousands of innocent Syrians have fled their homes." This ongoing crisis left "a whole generation of children uneducated, with no medical attention nor parental guidance, let alone all the destruction and damage inflected on many cities," Sheikh Sabah pointed out.
He went on saying that many warnings have been given out to pay attention to the seriousness of the ongoing fight that has been detrimental to the security and stability of the region. "What we have warned about has now become a reality when the ISIL group was formed. Now, all of the international community is trying to put a stop to the violence caused by this Islamic group," he explained.
Sheikh Sabah Khaled added that Kuwait has played a major part in aiding the Syrians by hosting two donor conferences and raising USD 800 million from many countries; Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development has also helped in building USD 50 million projects for Syrian refugees in host-countries.
The minister expressed appreciation to the host countries and the increasing challenges they're facing due to the inflow of large numbers of Syrian refugees; these challenges arise from the fact that some countries have not yet honored their pledges that they made during the donor conferences; despite the UN resolution no. 2139 related to delivering aid to the Syrians.
At the end of his speech, Sheikh Sabah noted that Kuwait has always strived to alleviate the suffering of the unfortunate in many parts of the world; it donated USD 5 million to combat the widely spreading Ebola virus in the African continent and it doubled its contribution to the UN Central Emergency Response Fund.
Furthermore, he expressed hope that the first-ever World Humanitarian Summit due in Turkey in 2016 would be successful and effective in helping unfortunate people worldwide.