Director General of the International Islamic Charity Organization (IICO) Dr. Othman Al-Hajji on Saturday extolled His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah for his firm support to the humanitarian activities of the organization.
"His Highness the Amir constantly follows up, and backs up IICO's relief efforts," he said, citing as an example the kind initiative by His Highness the Amir to launch an integrated village for the Syrian refugees in Al-Zaatari camp, north Jordan.
Al-Hajji, head of an IICO delegation on a visit to Kilis province, in south-central Turkey, made the comments during their meeting with Kilis Governor Ulas Akhan.
"At the behest of His Highness the Amir and in collaboration with the Turkish IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation, IICO has built 1,000 housing units for the Syrian refugees in Kilis," he said after paying an inspection visit to the project.
This is the one of two humanitarian projects the IICO delegation aims to visit in Turkey; the second will be "Kuwait model village which includes a similar number of housing units funded by a Kuwaiti government donation.
Al-Hajji noted that the IICO set up the Kuwaiti higher committee for emergency relief, an umbrella of 11 Kuwaiti charities aiming to network for speeding up the relief effort and back the model village project for the benefit of the Syrian refugees.
He commended the efforts being made by Kilis governor and the IHH to facilitate the implementation of humanitarian projects and strengthen the Kuwait-Turkish ties.
On his part, Akhan briefed the delegation on the Turkish efforts to back up the implementation of Kuwaiti relief projects, notably Kuwait model village which accommodates up to 7,000 refugees.
"The infrastructure of the village cost the Turkish government USD 600 million which took Turkey's total funding for hosting the Syrian refugees to USD five billion," Kilis governor said, noting that "it is a moral responsibility to care for our Syrian brothers." He appreciated Kuwait's generous contributions to the relief efforts for the Syrian refugees particularly those who were orphaned by the armed conflict.
"The humanitarian disaster resulting from the armed conflict in Syria is the world's biggest since the WWII," Akhan believes As winter approaches, the Turkish authorities are working for setting up camps in the border areas inside Syria to house the internally-displaced people and provide them with food, medical and housing aid, he added.
On her part, chairperson of the woman conference committee Shatha Al-Meshri said female members of the IICO general assembly were keen on taking part in the relief effort for the Syrian refugees.
She added that the female members of the IICO delegation will brief the woman conference, due in Kuwait this December, on this humanitarian experience.
Besides Al-Hajji and Al-Shemmeri, the delegation includes Dr. Aroub Al-Refa'i, Mona Abu Suleiman, Laila Al-Ghanem and Khalil Al-Awadhi.
Yesterday Al-Hajji and Dr. Abdullah Al-Ma'touq, advisor to the Amir Diwan, opened the Humanitarian Leader's village in the eastern city of Van which was hit by a massive quake in late 2011; the two-stage Kuwait-funded housing project is meant to accommodate the families rendered homeless after the quake.