THE Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has once again demonstrated its firm commitment to provide timely and much-needed relief to the people of Pakistan. King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre (KSRelief) has launched a project to distribute 30,000 winter bags, weighing 180 tons, in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, Balochistan, Azad Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan.
This project comes under the umbrella of humanitarian projects by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, represented by the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre to assist needy families living in the coldest areas in twenty-one regions across Pakistan. The contents of the relief package have direct relevance to the severity of the weather and would mitigate sufferings of the beneficiaries as these include two blankets, shawls for men and women, five pairs of socks, gloves and caps at a total cost of US$ 1.5 million. In all, 150,000 individuals will benefit from this project. The initiative assumes significance as the country is in the grip of a record low temperature and areas have carefully been selected to ensure that poorest of the poor in the far flung and backward regions are benefited. The areas include Ziarat, Kallat, Pishin, Zhob, Chitral, Shangla, Kohistan, Buner, Mansehra, Swat, Astor, Kharmang, Ghanche, Shigar, Ghizer, Neelum, Muzaffarabad, Mirpur, Haveli, Hattiyan Bala and Bagh. It is significant to note that with one of the largest humanitarian aid budgets in the world, KSRelief has been working in 44 countries, and after Yemen, Palestine, Syria and Somalia, Pakistan is the biggest beneficiary of the organization’s aid money and humanitarian operations. KSRelief has also been instrumental in distributing sacrificial meat among deserving people around Eidul Azha while Embassy of Saudi Arabia in Islamabad has also been regularly distributing food packets among the poor during the holy month of Ramzan. Apart from the targeted relief and aid, Saudi Arabia has always been in the forefront of efforts to mitigate sufferings of the affected people during natural calamities like flood and earthquake. People of Pakistan would always remember repeated generous offers of the Kingdom to provide oil on deferred payments and financial aid to help the country tackle financial and economic crises. Saudi Arabia has also earned a lot of goodwill by initiating different programmes and projects for relief and welfare of people of Pakistan like housing projects for the poor, development of basic healthcare units in rural regions, construction of schools and skills centres for children as well as social uplift projects like building of mosques.
