Gaza _ Palestine News Network
The Italian government has made a donation of €4 million, two of which will be earmarked for UNRWA health services in Gaza, and the other two will be earmarked for UNRWA´s food programme in the West Bank.
"The vital funds were quickly disbursed in response to the agency´s unprecedented financial deficit, which would enable Palestine refugees in the West Bank and Gaza to meet their basic nutritional needs and protect their livelihoods," UNRWA said in a statement on Thursday.
In the West Bank, Italy made a donation of €300,000 for the Emergency food assistance ("UNRWA") programme, which also includes cash aid for 37,000 Bedouin-shepherd, along with 422 Palestine refugee families with restricted access to employment and services. With food insecurity reaching 60% in some Bedouin communities, coupled with imminent threats of mass demolition of houses, specifically in the village of Khan al-Ahmar.
According to the statement, the donation of €1.7 million will enable the food distribution of more than 225,000 Palestinian refugees in Gaza, who are living in poverty and live on less than US $1, 74 a day. "UNRWA " provides critical humanitarian services to more than 925,000 Palestine refugees from the besieged sector.
In addition, Italy is making a donation of 2 million euros to provide comprehensive primary health care to refugees in Gaza through three centres during 2019. It will provide approximately 400,000 medical consultations.
More than 1.3 million Palestine refugees in Gaza benefited from UNRWA health-care services, with approximately 3, 36 million medical consultations recorded between January and October from 2018.
"We thank the Italian Government for its crucial and timely contributions," said UNRWA commissioner-General Pierre Krähenbühl. These donations do not only enable "UNRWA" to continue to provide its vital services, but the timing at which these donations were made allowed us to continue the programmes for the benefit of the users of the services of "UNRWA ".
