Qatar Charity (QC), through its office in Indonesia, has signed a three-year memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Indonesian Ministry of Religious Affairs to implement projects in five developmental areas at a cost of $30mn over three years.
QC Indonesia office director Karam Zeinhom and the Ministry’s Legal and Foreign Cooperation Affairs head Mohamed Muzaffar signed the MoU in the presence of the Minister of Religious Affairs Fachrul Razi and Qatar's ambassador to Indonesia Fawzia bint Idris Salman al-Sulaiti.
The current MoU is a continuation to the first agreement signed with the Indonesian government in 2006, according to a QC statement issued in Doha Tuesday. The MoU is expected to benefit 27 cities across eight Indonesian provinces.
The projects will be implemented in the areas of education, culture, sponsorships and social welfare, in addition to seasonal projects such as Iftar, Zakat Al-Fitr and Udhiya projects. The MoU also includes the infrastructure sector such as building mosques and multi-service education centres, water and sanitation sector, and productive skill development sector for the marginalised and the needy. Besides, it includes the natural disaster relief sector that provides food and non-food aid and shelter. Minister Razi thanked the Qatari people and QC for supporting the Indonesian people over 14 years. He also stressed the continued co-operation between the Ministry and QC for the next three years in implementing development projects to achieve the sustainable development goals until 2030.
Ambassador al-Sulaiti said that the framework convention confirmed the existing strategic partnership and the significant role of QC in the humanitarian field. She also reviewed the strong relations between the two countries, thanking the Indonesian government for facilitating QC’s humanitarian mission in the country.
Zeinhom said this is the largest agreement of QC in Indonesia and all activities and projects have been planned with the relevant government bodies to reach out to the those most in need. He pointed out that QC started its work in Indonesia after the tsunami that hit the Aceh Province in 2005, and built a residential complex named, 'Al Rayyan', benefitting 170 families, most of whom were affected by the tsunami.
It is worth mentioning that QC had implemented approximately 2,000 projects within the framework of the agreement, signed with the Indonesian government previously, at nearly $18mn. Moving forward gradually, QC has annually implemented hundreds of projects, numbering nearly 1,000, mostly water projects, in addition to building mosques, schools, and houses, including the construction of 120 houses in 2018 following the Garut flood. QC, in co-operation with the Ministry of Religious Affairs, has distributed food and non-food items last month, benefiting 15,837 families of those who became jobless due to the coronavirus pandemic.
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