São Paulo – The US$ 50 million donation made by Saudi Arabia to the Haiti earthquake victims is already available by means of a special fund of the United Nations (UN), according to information supplied by the Saudi ambassador to Brasília (the Brazilian capital), Mohamad Amin Ali Kurdi.
He claimed that he is unable to inform exactly how many people are being benefited by the donation, because the funds are being managed by the UN, but stated that this is “one of the largest donations made to the earthquake victims.”
“Whenever a natural disaster occurs, Saudi Arabia helps people to recover,” he said. Kurdi also underscored that in 2009, the country donated funds to the flood victims in the southern Brazilian state of Santa Catarina, as well as to disaster-stricken people in Indonesia and China.
The UN also informed, in its July 2009 report, that Saudi was the leading provider of humanitarian aid in 2008, having donated the equivalent of 0.19% of its Gross Domestic Product, which is US$ 345 billion.
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
