Japan donates 600 million yen (US $7.7 million) for food aid to Palestine refugees

17 August 2011
Amman

The government of Japan has announced a donation of US$ 7.7 million (600 million Japanese yen) towards food aid as part of Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA’s social safety-net programme for 2011 and 2012. The programme, aimed at alleviating poverty among Palestine refugees, provides food aid and cash subsidies to more than a quarter of a million impoverished people in Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. The Japanese contribution will help Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA provide vulnerable refugees with food including wheat flour and pulses. Families benefiting from the social safety-net receive food packages every three months, including sugar, rice, oil and milk powder.

Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA Commissioner-General, Filippo Grandi, welcomed the Japanese contribution, saying: “I would like to thank the government and people of Japan for this contribution especially this year when Japan was hit with the earthquake and tsunami.” He continued: “Food aid is one of two components of a programme targeting the neediest refugees.”

The agreement was signed today at the Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA Baqa’a Elementary Co-Ed School in Baqa’a camp, Jordan, by Mr Grandi and the Japanese Ambassador to Jordan H.E. Junichi Kosuge.

Speaking at the ceremony, HE Mr. Kosuge said: “Japan has been and will continue to be proactively involved in assistance to the Palestinian people and making efforts towards peace in the region.” He continued: “Japan considers Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA as an important partner to realise our diplomatic principle of human security and to promote peace in the region.”

Japan’s assistance to the Palestine refugees through Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA, which began in 1953, has amounted to approximately US$ 600 million, including this year’s food aid contribution. Japan has been providing food aid to Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA since 1967, and is among a number of donors that today regularly contribute to Ä¢¹½ÊÓÆµRWA’s social safety-net programme.
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