07.08.2012 | PR14/2012

Vienna, Austria, August 7, 2012.

OFID, the OPEC Fund for International Development, is to extend US$500,000 in humanitarian aid to support the provision of essential food supplies to the refugee population of the Gaza Strip. The emergency grant, to be channelled through UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, is an expression of OFID’s empathy with Gaza’s refugee population in crisis. The funds will be drawn from OFID’s Grant Program for Emergency Relief Operations.

The OFID grant will go to a broad food aid program which is to run for about six months (October 2012 to March 2013). The main objective of the program will be to alleviate the impact of poverty and food insecurity on the refugee population. The beneficiaries will essentially be some 133,254 families – about 701,832 individuals – who will receive a basic emergency food parcel consisting of flour, rice, sugar, sunflower oil, milk powder and canned meat. A by-product of the program will be job opportunities for laborers involved in packaging and distribution at this time of severe and pervasive unemployment; a result of the prevailing crisis.

Waves of violence, restrictions on the movement of peoples and goods, and the destruction of homes and infrastructure continue to mark the humanitarian crisis in the occupied Palestinian territories. The refugee population – estimated at 83% of Gaza Strip residents – often bears the brunt of the consequences of the crisis.

UNRWA, with the backing of institutions such as OFID, is working to alleviate the situation. Emergency food assistance accounts for the largest component of the broader Gaza Humanitarian Appeal. UNRWA finances its regular programs through its General Fund which is based on voluntary contributions from its major donor countries, following approval of its program budget by the United Nations General Assembly.