UAE to help distribute millions of meals in Gaza

Dubai - Additional 19 million meals to be distributed as part of 100 Million Meals drive

The UAE’s Ramadan food donation campaign called ‘100 Million Meals’ will see the allocation of an additional 19 million meals to the Gaza Strip in Palestine.

The Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives (MBRGI) said on Sunday that it has collaborated with the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) to facilitate food vouchers to low-income families and individuals. The vouchers will help beneficiaries purchase a variety of nutritious and locally produced food.

The distribution comes in support to vulnerable groups, including those impacted by the recent violence.

The violence displaced thousands in Palestine, including 77,000 who took refuge in UN schools and headquarters, and an additional 40,000, who fled to friends and family homes in the Gaza Strip.

The WFP’s e-vouchers enable beneficiaries to shop from a network of contracted supermarkets in the amounts that sustain their households. They inject “much needed cash into Gaza’s ailing economy, supporting the resilience of small businesses in the face of shocks”, the MBRGI said.

The ‘100 Million Meals’ campaign, launched earlier in Ramadan to provide food aid for disadvantaged individuals and families across 30 countries, had already allocated 9 million meals to be distributed in Palestine. Food aid has so far reached beneficiaries in the West Bank.

Sara Al Nuaimi, Director of the MBRGI, said: “Through the 19 million meals, which will be added to the previously allocated 9 million meals to the West Bank, we aim to reach 207,385 people in Gaza with urgent food support over a period of one month.”

“About 70 per cent of families in the Gaza Strip are facing food insecurity, according to WFP figures. The additional food support, provided through the ‘100 Million Meals’ campaign, is a message of solidarity from the UAE to those most affected by this difficult reality.”