Every year, winter comes to intensify the suffering of refugees and the displaced living in tents and makeshift housing, as well as the poor across the world. In the cold season, these vulnerable people struggle to meet their food, shelter, and other needs, due to the bitter cold, heavy rains, and harsh snowfalls, which occur frequently in winter.
Such a worsening situation of the vulnerable requires early action by humanitarian and charitable organizations to meet their basic needs, and limit the negative impact of the cold season on them. The situation also reminds people of the benevolence of the sorrow of the vulnerable, especially due to the coronavirus pandemic in the upcoming winter season.
Qatar Charity, as usual, dedicates campaigns to provide winter essentials needed by the vulnerable before the season approaches with its bitter cold, heavy rains, and harsh snowfalls.
Qatar Charity launched the 2019-20 winter campaign “Warmth and Peace” from the Syrian and Palestinian refugee camps in Jordan. The campaign received a huge response from philanthropists, both male and female, in Qatar. The campaign enabled Qatar Charity to deliver assistance to more than 1,247,546 refugees, displaced persons and needy people in 13 countries, at a total cost of over 57 million Qatari riyals. As part of the 2019-20 winter campaign, Qatar Charity provided relief, food, shelter, and health aid, in addition to delivering winter assistance and extending social cohesion and livelihood support.
The campaign focused on the affected in countries like Syria and Palestine, which are going through exceptional circumstances. It also concentrated on the underprivileged in countries where temperatures fall below zero degrees Celsius.
The campaign targeted refugees, the displaced and the needy in Palestine, Syria, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, India, Kosovo, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ethiopia, Lebanon, Jordan, Tunisia and Myanmar.
Immediately after its launch, the campaign managed to send six trucks loaded with winter supplies to be distributed to Syrian refugees and low-income Jordanian families in the Amman governorate, as well as to Palestinian refugees in Talbieh camp in Madaba governorate in southern Jordan, benefiting 16000 people.
Under the “For Humanity” initiative, assistance worth QR11mn were distributed to refugees in Iraq, Yemen, and Jordan, in cooperation between Qatar Charity and UNHCR. Besides, winter bags were distributed to orphans in nine countries.
Food aid and comprehensive relief supplies were provided to Rohingya refugee families in India, benefiting 4,792 persons, while winter essentials were provided for 19,658 people in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kyrgyzstan, Kosovo and Albania. In India, food baskets and winter clothes were distributed to the poor and needy, benefiting 33,830 people.
Qatar Charity is keen to intervene immediately and urgently to alleviate the suffering of the displaced and refugees living in camps, especially in Lebanon and within Syria, where they face catastrophic situations during winter.