The value of foreign aid provided by UAE to combat polio during the past two years has exceeded Dh110 million ($29.9 million), according to Sheikha Lubna Bint Khalid Al Qasimi, Minister of International Cooperation and Development and  head of the UAE Committee for the Coordination of Humanitarian Foreign Aid.

 

The support provided by Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, in the amount of $120 million, or the equivalent of Dh440 million, to boost global efforts to eradicate polio by 2018, she noted.

 

In a speech delivered on the occasion of World Polio Day, Sheikha Lubna said that the UAE has made concerted efforts to address the challenges and fight diseases facing the world, namely polio, in collaboration with many partners and institutions that are active regionally and internationally.

 

She said that the UAE’s efforts were not limited to the provision of financial support to fight polio, but have contributed to the vaccination campaigns to reach the beneficiaries in remote villages and towns, especially in countries such as Pakistan, Afghanistan, and several African nations.

 

Sheikha Lubna Al Qasimi commended the generous financial, medical, and logistical support provided by donor state institutions, in line with the directives of the UAE’s wise leadership, which has always provided support to the needy without discrimination, as part of its ongoing commitment to contribute to the development of the global human community in accordance with the philosophy of the founding father, the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan.

 

The size of aid for polio vaccines provided by the UAE to countries such as Pakistan in 2014 exceeded Dh59 million, said a statement.

 

The aid was delivered in collaboration with several institutions such as the UAE Pakistan Assistance Program and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The value of UAE aid to polio eradication programs organised by the World Health Organization in Africa exceeded Dh51 million, it added. - TradeArabia News Service