Saudi Arabia: The King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSRelief) on Monday signed a joint agreement with the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to implement seven projects worth $46 million.

The agreement aims to support access for Yemeni children affected by the coronavirus pandemic to educational opportunities through remote learning.

It also hopes to develop plans that allow children to safely return to school and train teachers to deal with the challenges from COVID-19.

The agreement was signed via video call by KSRelief General Supervisor Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah, and UNICEF’s Representative in the Gulf region Eltayeb Adam.

The agreement will “support Yemeni children’s access to quality education opportunities by equipping schools, providing educational supplies to students and building the capacities of staff,” Saudi Press Agency reported.“The agreement also includes enabling children and their families to access psychosocial support and mental health services.”

The projects will be carried out in cooperation with the Yemen’s education ministry and provincial authorities in 20 Yemeni regions.

KSRelief said it would also provide emergency COVID-19 equipment in several regions, such as Aden, Lahj, Abyan, Taiz and Socotra, including ventilators, monitoring devices and defibrillators to treat patients in intensive care units.

The charity will also set up 60 respiratory screening points in hospitals and health centers, provide personal protective equipment for medical staff and train health professionals to tackle outbreaks.On top of that, the money will also be used for regular health care, building a warehouse to store supplies, and helping fund a number of hospitals and health centers.

One of the projects will focus on reducing injuries and deaths caused by malnutrition in children and pregnant women in eight governorates that have high levels of acute malnutrition.

Al-Rabeeah said the agreement would benefit almost 17 million Yemenis. 

Adam thanked the Kingdom for its support for UNICEF’s programs in Yemen.

Last week KSRelief signed deals to provide more than $200 million of assistance to Yemen through the World Food Programme (WFP), the World Health Organization, and the UN Higher Commissioner for Refugees.