São Paulo – The donation campaign to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (Unrwa) in Brazil, held in partnership with the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce, raised R$ 124,270 (US$ 53,506) from its launch on September 30th until last Monday (9th). At the campaign’s closing ceremony, held this Thursday (12th) at the Arab Brazilian Chamber headquarters, in São Paulo, Chamber president Marcelo Sallum presented the Unrwa commissioner general, Italy’s Filippo Grandi, with a symbolic cheque for the sum raised.
Grandi said the money will be allocated to the treating of conditions such as cancer and diabetes at two refugee health centres, and to the purchase of a piece of ultrasound equipment for use on pregnant women. “To the refugees, the donation carries the symbolic value of the solidarity being extended to a group who feels forgotten and marginalized by the international community. This will show them that they have not been forgotten, and I believe other campaigns will take place,” he said. Next Friday (13th), Grandi should meet with the Brazilian minister of External Relations, Luiz Alberto Figueiredo Machado, in Brasília, to discuss a donation from the Brazilian government to the Unrwa.
According to Grandi, the Unrwa’s annual budget is US$ 1.2 billion, of which US$ 600 million are spent on the main activities of the organization, such as education and healthcare. The remainder of the budget covers infrastructure costs. There are 5 million Palestinian refugees living in five different territories: Gaza, the West Bank, Syria, Lebanon, and Jordan. According to Grandi, 500,000 children were enrolled at Unrwa-managed schools in 2012, and 3 million Palestinians have been to the organization’s 100-plus clinics. Unrwa does not own any hospitals; it operates via contracts.
The Arab Brazilian Chamber Marketing vice president Riad Younes said the campaign has been a “success” and that there are plans for new ones. “It was the first campaign of this type held by the Arab Brazilian Chamber and the Unrwa. It has been a success. It was one of the highest sums ever raised by the Unrwa with no government involvement. In 2014, we will hold a similar campaign in the first half and another in the second half. There are a few details pending,” he said. According to Younes, all of the donations have been made by natural persons.
The Arab Brazilian Chamber president Marcelo Sallum said the amount raised has been “fantastic” and that the fact that Unrwa is involved is a guarantee to the donors that the money will actually be passed on to the refugees. “It has been a very positive effort. We always tend to think it was not enough, but considering that this is our first campaign, it has been great. It has proven to us that it can be done. In less than three months, with our own advertising, we have found the donors. And because the Unrwa is behind the project, we can rest assured that the money will reach the people who need it,” he said.
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The ceremony was also attended by the Unrwa vice president for Health, the Syrian paediatrician Taysser Sabbagh. He said that over the past few years, the agency has strived to develop an e-health system to keep patient records. It is a way of knowing which diseases are most common among Palestinians, and how to treat them more efficiently.
Speaking at the ceremony, the physician said he had support from Unrwa as a child in Damascus, Syria. “I was vaccinated for smallpox, and later, while attending the Unrwa school, I was given all other school age vaccines. Later on, I was diagnosed with type-one diabetes. As a result of my condition I had coronary disease, and I was treated by the Unrwa. Even while I was in college, I never lacked the means to study and to grow,” he said. He also said the funds raised by the campaign held by the Arab Brazilian Chamber and Unrwa will also be spent on developing the e-health system, and on treating diabetes.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
