LONDON: The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has expressed its appreciation of Saudi Arabia’s long-term support to the humanitarian response in Yemen. 

In a report published on its website, UNICEF said that Saudi Arabia, through the work of the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSRelief), is one of the biggest contributors to emergency and humanitarian operations in Yemen. It added that the center has implemented programs to address a wide range of urgent humanitarian needs of the children in displaced communities and in affected areas.

“The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is one of the generous contributors to UNICEF emergency and humanitarian interventions in Yemen. Since 2015, KSRelief has been responding to a wide range of urgent humanitarian needs of children, as well as children from displaced and marginalized communities living in conflict-affected areas.

“Thanks to the generous support from Saudi Arabia, medical centers have been opened by mobile teams to provide treatment and continuous monitoring of acute malnutrition cases and basic and ongoing immunization against polio and measles...to ensure that children are protected from vaccine-preventable diseases,” added the report.

The report highlighted some of UNICEF’s major achievements with the support of KSRelief Center to provide children with emergency and life-saving assistance in health, nutrition, childhood diseases, immunization, vaccination and care for pregnant and lactating women in the targeted areas of and respond to the cholera epidemic. 

The center continues to support UNICEF’s efforts to contain the epidemic in several Yemeni governorates, , including Ibb, Taiz, Amran, Dhamar, Dhale in Aden and Sanaa.

The report said large quantities of drinking water will be delivered to the affected areas within a period of 6 months.

The report added that the KSRelief supports awareness-raising activities, where health workers are trained to hold awareness sessions on the importance of hygiene through visits in targeted communities.

The Permanent Mission of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to the United Nations affirmed the country’s keenness to provide everything that it could to protect and care for children and to ensure that they enjoyed their humanitarian, social, educational and economic rights. The Kingdom’s mission also emphasised its belief that UNICEF played a great role in providing a good standard of living and better future prospects for all the children in the world.

It also reiterated the Kingdom’s commitment to continue to provide everything needed to enable the UN organization to do its job perfectly.