unitex@rubbs.fidonet.org (unitex) (09/19/89)
UNITED NATIONS GIVES $200,000 TO SAVE THE CHILDREN FEDERATION Posting Date: 09/18/89 Source: UNITEX Network, Hoboken, NJ, USA Host: (201) 795-0733 ISSN: 1043-7932 Ronald I. Spiers, Under-Secretary-General for Political and General Assembly Affairs and Secretariat Services, handed over a check today for $200,000 to the Save the Children Federation for emergency relief assistance to 12,000 families displaced by the recent fighting in and around Beirut. The money comes from the Secretary-General's Trust Fund for Assistance to Lebanon. Most of this particular contribution was donated by Australia. The funds will be used to provide blankets, mattresses, kitchen utensils, sanitary facilities, water and other basic supplies to families whose houses have been destroyed and who are forced to live in underground parking lots, unfinished buildings, schools or other types of temporary shelters. The emergency aid will be distributed by relief teams of the Save the Children Federation in east and west Beirut, the eastern mountains, Chouf and Iqlim, southern Lebanon and the Beqaa. The Save the Children Federation has worked in the Middle East since 1953. Apart from emergency assistance to families in Lebanon most affected by the ongoing civil strife, the Save the Children Federation administers community development projects in credit, health, education and agriculture. The Federation also provides food aid to the once prosperous country. The Save the Children Federation's annual country programme budget in Lebanon now exceeds $25 million. The United Nations specialized agencies and programmes co-operate closely with non-governmental organizations active in Lebanon, such as the Save the Children Federation. In April of this year, the Secretary-General made an appeal for emergency assistance to Lebanon, and the $200,000 given to the Federation was made possible by the response to this appeal. Member States and international organizations have stepped up funding to the United Nations for a co-ordinated relief approach in Lebanon. Only recently, the European Economic Community (EEC) donated 1,472,000 ECUs to the United Nations Disaster Relief Co-ordinator's Office. The United Nations efforts in Lebanon are being co-ordinated by Ragnar Gudmundsson, who is the Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Reconstruction and Development of Lebanon and Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). * Origin: UNITEX --> Toward a United Species (1:107/501) --- Patt Haring | United Nations | FAX: 212-787-1726 patth@sci.ccny.cuny.edu | Information | BBS: 201-795-0733 patth@ccnysci.BITNET | Transfer Exchange | (3/12/24/9600 Baud) -=- Every child smiles in the same language. -=-