UNRWA receives 30 million euros in aid

The UN Relief and Work Agency (UNRWA) announced on Thursday to receive 30 million euros (about 33.6 million U.S. dollars) from the EU to relieve the organization's fiscal deficit.

UNRWA said that the EU funding was announced during a series of activities being held on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly annual meetings in New York.

UNRWA said that the new funding brings the EU' contribution to the agency's budget in the year 2015 up to 125 million euros (about 140 million U.S. dollars), which will support UNRWA's main programs of education and health care.

It explained that the EU support comes in response to the deficit in the agency's core programs budget, which had risked a delay in opening UNRWA's 700 schools on time for the current school year in five areas the agency supervises.

The agency said that 10 million of the funds would enable UNRWA to improve the education, health care and livelihoods of 480,000 Palestinian refugees living in Syria.

The EU aid would "enhance these refugees resilience and staying power, thus reducing pressures on them to flee to the neighboring countries and Europe."

UNRWA was established by a UN General Assembly resolution in 1949 to provide assistance and protection to some five million registered Palestinian refugees in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria.

UNRWA services include education, health care, relief and social services, camp infrastructure and improvement, and micro finance for refugees to be able to achieve their full potential in the human development until reaching a fair solution to their cause. Endit