The Shaikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum Charitable and Humanitarian Foundation has set up a large tent in Dubai beside its premises on Bani Yas Road (Green Tower Building) to receive donations for a relief campaign launched by the foundation for Afghan refugees, the Khaleej Times reported Sunday.
Khalid Ali bin Zayed, member of the foundation's board of trustees and head of the public relations committee, was quoted by the Dubai-based paper as saying that the campaign sought to raise funds and collect relief goods, particularly warm clothes and blankets.
According to the report, the cash contributions can also be deposited in an account with the Dubai Islamic Bank.
He said that money raised through the campaign would be utilized to buy foodstuffs for the refugees, adding that the first camp being set up by the foundation in Afghanistan would be ready by the end of this week and would accommodate around 10,000 people.
The UAE Red Crescent Society (RCS) has dispatched four planeloads of various relief supplies to Afghan refugees who are stranded at the Afghanistan-Iran border.
The relief supplies comes in line with the directives of President Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan to provide the Afghan refugees with all needed relief as quick as the RCS can, said the agency.
A total of 200 tons of relief assistance has already been flown to the area for distribution to the refugees.
The RCS has already started setting up a 40,000-person capacity refugee camp in Shimen on the Pakistani side of the border as waves of refugees from US bombing continue to flood to the area, it added.
At the extraordinary meeting of the foreign ministers of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), which was held early this month, the UAE offered an initial donation of $3 million in support of a fund to help the Afghan people.
Meanwhile, First Lady Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak, who the chairs the UAE Women's Federation, has offered Dh5 million for the humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan amid continued US strikes against the ruling Taliban militia – Albawaba.com
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