Al Ka'bi,

"It is out of brotherly duty and Islamic commitment to relieve the needy that the philanthropists in Qatar should contribute to sending urgent aids to the Yemenis."

Shiban,

"We thank Qatar and the philanthropists who have shown great support to the affected-Yemenis."

"The projects help build the society and reconnect its members despite the threat of breaking apart most of Yemini cities face."

For the benefit of 7,000 people in Yemen, QC continues to implement relief projects for the affected and displaced Yemenis in Al Baydaa, Ma'rib, and Taiz at a total cost of 500,000 QR for the benefit of 7,000 people.

The project was financed by the waqf (mortmain property) of Jassim Darwish. It included distributing 600 food parcels each comprised of 50 Kg of wheat, 10 Kg of sugar, 10 Kg of rice, 900 g of dried milk, 5 liters of oil, a pack of legumes (24 cans),1kg of tea, 2,400 blankets and 2,400 suits for children.

The project covered Al Qahirah, Al Mudhaffar, Salh, Mashra'a Wa Hadnan Districts in Taiz; Majzar District in Ma'rib; Al Baydaa, As Sawma'ah, Mukayras, Az Zahir, Dhi Na'im, and As Sawadiah Districts in Al Baydaa.

Thousands of families lost their houses and their sources of income; these people were forced to leave their homes.

Mr. Mohammed Al Ka'bi, QC's Relief Director, said,"600 families benefited from the food supplies and blankets, and 2,400 children from the clothes. 7,000 people were made happy because of the aids. QC contributed to the alleviation of their sufferance, and reinforced their psychological and food stability. I encourage all the Qatari philanthropists and good doers living in Qatar to aid their brothers and sisters in Yemen.   It is out of brotherly duty and Islamic commitment to relieve the needy that the philanthropists in Qatar should contribute to sending urgent aids to the Yemenis".

Commendations

For his part, Mr. Abdul Kareem Shiban, Member of the House of Representatives in Taiz, said, "Such projects' impacts do not include filling empty stomachs only. Rather, they help build the society and reconnect its members despite the threat of breaking apart most of Yemini cities face. We certainly thank all those responsible for the waqf of Jassim Darwish, Qatar's prince, government and people. In Yemen, the number of needy people is increasing; they need more humanitarian attention especially that the list of their needs is growing as well."

Humanitarian Response

QC hosted a preparatory workshop organized by QC and 12 other humanitarian organizations. It was attended by His Excellency Mr. Abdul-Raqib Saif Fath, Minister of Local Administration and the Chairman of the Higher Committee for Relief in Yemen.

The initiative committee included the Higher Committee for Relief in Yemen, Organization of Islamic Cooperation, Arab League, United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (Saudi Arabia), The International Committee of the Red Cross (Switzerland), Qatar Charity Society, International Humanitarian City (Emirates), International Medical Corps (United States of America), International Islamic Charitable Organization (Kuwait), Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH Turkey), Start Network (Britain), and International Council of Voluntary Agencies (ICVA in Switzerland).

The workshop was held for the preparation of the Conference of Humanitarian Crisis in Yemen: Challenges and Prospects of the Humanitarian Response. The initiators met for consultation, coordination and cooperation so as to face the deteriorating situation of the Yemenis and their increasing sufferings.

Aiding Socotra

Megh and Chapala cyclones hit Socotra Island and a number of coast cities in the south of Yemen. QC was the first humanitarian society to reach the cyclone-affected people there. So far, QC has implemented 2 relief projects to aid those people; the first project was implemented for the Chapala-affected in Socotra Island, Hadramawt, Al Mahrah, and Shabwah from which 500 families benefited. The other project was for the Megh-affected from which 9,150 people benefited. The aids it offered included food baskets, blankets, mattresses, kitchen tools (for each family), and cooked meals for those whose houses were destroyed.  

You can donate to support such projects through the link: Click here

The event was held alongside a United Nations event and was attended by a number of important figures and representatives of international organizations, including the Secretary-General of the United Nations Assistant for partnerships in the Middle East and Central Asia, Rashid Khalikov, and involving the participation and support of the Permanent Mission of the State of Qatar to the United Nations, which provided all the facilities and technical and logistical support for the event.

Mr/Mohammed bin Ali Al-Ghamdi, Executive Director for International Development at QC, said that the event met with considerable praise, pointing to the importance of QC’s desire to highlight the role of education in promoting social harmony in post-conflict areas such as Somalia, Sri Lanka and Bosnia.

Rashid Khalikov congratulated QC on its efforts and thanked the Permanent Mission of the State of Qatar's for its contribution.

He added “Education during emergencies is a human subject, pointing out that the provision of education decreases the risk of violence and conflict. He then highlighted that the importance of education should not stop at children and young people but it should reach parents equally for the life continuation feeling it provides.

Program of the session 

The session was initiated by Al-Ghamdi who welcomed the attendees before playing an introductory video about QC, followed by the submission of papers by experts from international organizations and institutions and academics from four universities. The first axis provided a general background on the event theme of ‘The role of education in promoting social harmony’, the second was entitled ‘what is expected from education in terms of the re-modeling of social harmony in the post-conflict areas?’, the third included case studies from Somalia, Sri Lanka and the fourth and last discussion covered education and its impact on conflicts as well as society.

The first axis

“The role of education in promoting social harmony, the main theme of this event, covers a range of issues, namely: the reality of conflicts across the world and their effects, conflict resolution and peace-sustainability efforts, conflict and issues connected to social cohesion, education and the promotion of social harmony and the challenges facing the harnessing of education in promoting social harmony,” Al Ghamdi said, concluding that the first axis posed a range of questions, answered by the following axes.

The second axis

the second axis was presented by Dr/Mohammed Sharqawi, Professor of Conflict Resolution at George Mason University, and included a definition of social harmony in terms of academic and research based social theories. Sharqawi discussed the relationships between social harmony, identity, economic interests, marital status and belonging to a group or community.

Prof.Sharqawi spoke of a Bosnian case, providing a practical example of how to adapt the tool of education in order to achieve and promote social harmony in a country like Bosnia, which suffered from ethnic and religious conflict for over five years, leading to the murder and displacement of hundreds of thousands of people and tearing apart the social fabric of the communities.

The session ended with proposals for education re-modeling before social harmony by focusing on three key factors: redesign of the curriculum and reviewing the curricula of existing decisions, by focusing on primary and secondary education as a sustainable Peace factor, and finally, promoting and spreading the culture of equal citizenship.

The third axis

As for case studies, Mr.Abdul Rahman Sharif, Head of Non-Governmental organizations in Somalia, used Somalia as a model, including background on the country and explaining that in reality the country is divided into three areas; Somaliland (independent), Portland (autonomous) and southern Somalia, including the capital, Mogadishu.

Sharif spoke about the conflict in Somalia and the different types of conflict. His paper considered the implications of the collapse of the education system in many areas of Somalia. He went on to consider some of the initiatives in the revival of the educational process and the use of different types of education as tools to promote social harmony and a culture of peace, ending with recommendations and proposals on strengthening and unifying the educational system in order to promote a culture of peace and social harmony.

Miss/Stephanie Licht, head of evaluation and follow-up in the German agency GIZ, gave a presentation on the Sri Lankan case, covering the German experience through the program supported by the German government and which has been in place since 2005, i.e. during and after the conflict. The program achieved outstanding results in terms of social harmony through education. The Sri Lankan situation can be characterised by its similarity to the current conflicts in countries such as Syria, Iraq and Yemen in terms of ethnic, religious, sectarian and ethnic diversity, with differences in culture, religious beliefs and even language.

The program focused on secondary education, where numerous approaches and curricula were used at the beginning of the program through its application to a sample of schools reached 200 schools before ruling out a combination of these approaches that have proven to be of no importance or unfeasible in achieving social harmony, along with the adoption of approaches, which contributed to its promotion.

Among the most important program success factors were the contribution and participation of the government and its complete conviction of the program importance, the desire of local authorities for the success of the program, the contribution and participation of local communities in the program and their interaction with it, and finally the use and adoption of a multi-level approach (government, region (province), schools) during the design and application.

The program focused on three issues involving curriculum design: social and psychological care (to address the effects of violence and conflict on the target groups), education of the second nationality (Sinhala, Tamil) in secondary education, and peace and the values ​​of education. At the end of the paper Licht spoke of the positive results achieved, backing them up with numbers and statistics.

The fourth axis

Axes four and five were introduced by Dr. Alan Codman, President of the International Institute of Education in New York. Codman presented some important information about education and the conflict-affected and vulnerable, particularly students and teachers.

He spoke of the importance of involving local people in the planning of finding solutions to the problems of education in their respective countries, as well as the need to be supportive of the political administration of the educational process and to support the importance of the resumption of education in conflict zones.

Codman’s talk focused on three key issues in education in conflict zones: protecting teachers, the training and enabling of teachers in places of conflict and focusing on the dropout of students and their immediate return and reintegration into education.

• The president of Puntland State of Somalia said, “The people of Qatar’s immediate help has contributed to saving lives and decreased the magnitude of malnutrition”.
• Mohamed Hussain Omar stated, “The crisis magnitude is terrible and it needs more support to confront its negative effects.”

In “#Somalia_suffering_and_drought” campaign, Qatar Charity has implemented instant Relief Projects in Africa in the areas that were damaged by the recent drought wave in the middle and the north of Somalia. They have distributed, in the first stage, foodstuffs and potable water to 1050 families. They are going to distribute more food baskets next week for hundreds of families.  The distribution have taken place in Puntland and Galmudug where families have received food baskets enough for a month containing some rice, sugar, flour, oil, milk powder, dates and potable water. They are going to offer more food baskets as well to 550 families next week in Baidoa, one of the most damaged cities by drought wave.

Abdiweli NabadJecel, President of Puntland, has highly commended the people of Qatar on offering help for Somalis especially in crises. He has also thanked QC for their involvement and being a great support to aggrieved people because of the drought crisis which has ruined the livestock and was the reason behind water depletion. That has severely caused great damages and resulted in people’s suffering especially women, and children of whom a lot died due to diseases resulting from malnutrition and drinking undrinkable water.

Humanitarian call

Mentioning Qatar charity’s humanitarian and developmental projects which have comprised various areas in Somalia, the President of Puntland has appealed the humanitarian organizations to follow in  Qatar Charity's footsteps and help thousands of Somalis who encounter serious dangers owing to the drought wave that have completely destroyed everything. Besides, he has pointed up that Qatar Charity is taking up the lead by its pressing help to rescue the people of Somalia when it’s necessary.

A serious crisis

Mohamed Hussain Omar, QC’s Director of the Regional Office, said that implementing such immediate relief projects is a part of QC’s campaign to help Somalia, and a response to the call of international organizations that stressed the great magnitude of the crisis which is increasing. Such crisis requires organized and focused efforts leading to rescuing thousands of those who are aggrieved in the middle and the north of Somalia.

Philanthropists in Qatar stand by Somalis to meet their needs or implement developmental projects that obviously make a difference in their lives. That’s why, on behalf of the beneficiaries, Mohamed Hussain Omar has expressed his thanks to the philanthropists for continuous support for their Somalis brothers. Further, he has prompted the Qatari philanthropists to continue their giving by donation for Qatar Charity’s projects aiming to provide the relief stuffs for  the affected people due to drought wave in Somalia. Asking Allah to bless Qatar and its people, he has called them to exert efforts to face the great negative effects of the crisis.

It is noteworthy that QC has launched an urgent relief campaign to confront the effects of drought in Somalia. Through certain stocks, it has urged donors and philanthropists in Qatar to continue to donate for the benefit of their affected brothers due to their harsh suffering because of water, food and medicine shortages and the great need in this regard. The stocks are: “Water supply” which is worth 100 QR, the "food basket" which is worth 300 QR, and "medical services" with a worth of 500 QR. Donation to this campaign is also available using one of these means: send a text message “sms” having “soa” symbol to 92632 to donate 50 QR, and to 92642 to donate  200 QR, and to 92428 to donate 500 QR.

You can also Donate to the Campaign via e-mail to Qatar Charity, qcharity.org or via the hotline: 44667711, or through collection points and Qatar charity’s self-service devices in the malls.

You can donate to support such projects through the link: Click here