Prague, July 18 (CTK) – The Czech Republic supported about 30 humanitarian projects in 19 countries with a total of 110 million crowns in the first half of the year, the Foreign Ministry writes on its website, adding that a Czech plane with medical equipment worth four million landed in the war-stricken Syria today.
The overall sum projected for humanitarian aid in 2017 is 159 million crowns, the ministry writes.
A large part of the aid heads to Syria and Iraq where the fights claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and drove millions of people from their homes in recent years.
For example, the aid includes seven projects worth 26.9 million crowns, organised by the ADRA, People in Need and other NGOs, based on which an immediate aid goes to Iraq and Iraqi and Syrian refugees in the region.
Another five reconstruction projects worth almost 20 million have been approved within the Czech aid.
Besides war-stricken regions, the Czech humanitarian aid also targeted countries afflicted by natural disasters or epidemics, such as Mongolia, hit by a severe winter, or the Philippines and Sri Lanka, both hit by floods and landslides.
The ministry writes that serious humanitarian crises continue this year in connection with conflicts, mainly in Syria, Iraq, Yemen and South Sudan, and a bad humanitarian situation persists in the Central African Republic and Ukraine, in spite of a slight improvement.
In addition, a cholera epidemic has broken out in Yemen, the ministry writes.
As far as natural disasters are concerned, the impacts of the El Nino phenomenon continue in many countries of southern and eastern Africa, southeastern Asia and Latin America, which suffer from drought, malnourishment, devastating floods and landslides, the ministry writes.
The Czech military plane that landed in Syria today brought in 177 pieces of medical equipment, which were handed over to officers from the Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC).
The plane also brought toys for Syrian refugees’ children gathered in public campaigns in the Czech Republic.
The consignment is a part of the government programme in support of Syria’s reconstruction in 2016-2019, which is also designed to support health care, housing, nourishment and education of people in Syria and Syrian refugees in neighbouring states.
The Czech aid to Syria crossed 200 million crowns in 2016 and it is projected at 224 million this year.
($1=22.762 crowns)
