By Sanaullah Ataullah
DOHA: Sheikh Thani bin Abdullah Foundation for Humanitarian Services (RAF) has earmarked QR60m to create educational opportunities for 45,000 children in 20 African and Asian countries who have dropped out or could not attend schools due to poverty.
The initiative ‘Al Ghaza W Al Nur (Food and Light)’ will be executed by RAF, in collaboration with Unicef and UN World Food Program (WFP).
The plan in the first phase is to provide basic food items to 15,000 needy families on a monthly basis for one year so they could send their children to school. Ten new schools will be built in poor countries to support educational infrastructure.
Hundreds of small development projects will also be launched to provide livelihood for needy families.
Projects will be launched on priority to help the weakest sections of the community. For example, a new school will be built in a locality where 300 families live without any school. A supermarket will be set up in an area where 400 beneficiaries of food security programme live and coupons will be distributed to them to collect food items. The outlet will be handed over to the poorest family as its source of income.
The initiative will begin from Sudan, Yemen and three countries in West Africa and gradually reach all 20 countries, including Mali, Niger, Sudan, Afghanistan, Chad, Pakistan, Senegal, Guinea, Yemen, Somalia, Syria, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Iraq, Mauritania, Togo, Kenya, Nigeria and Liberia.
The countries are selected based the international reports suggesting urgent need for food and education due to lack of food security, high rate of illiteracy, tough economic conditions, civil war and natural disasters, among others.
The initiative was disclosed by RAF officials at a press conference yesterday.
The initiative connects education with anti-poverty drive, said Sheikh Dr Abdulaziz bin Abdurrahman Al Thani, Head, Supreme Committee for Initiative.
“We provide humanitarian services to needy people all over the world regardless of their country, religion and ethnicity,” he added.
Phase I will cost about QR60m, said Ali bin Yusuf Al Kuwari, Head, Marketing and Financial Resources Development Department, RAF.
About QR10m has been granted by the endowment fund of Sheikh Thani bin Abdullah Al Thani, Honorary President of RAF. A plan has been prepared by RAF to collect the remaining QR50m from individuals and major donors to support the initiative, he added.
It is a smart and successful idea to connect food with education, said Abdullah Al Wardat, Director, WFP in the GCC countries. Mostly, students drop out of school and are not admitted due to economic reasons. Their families depend on them for their expenses as there is no breadwinner or the income is not enough, he added.
The Peninsula
