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The Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) has launched an emergency relief intervention to help the families affected by the recent 6.0-magnitude earthquake in Kunar province, eastern Afghanistan, a statement said on Tuesday. The calamity left behind more than 5,840 casualties, destroyed thousands of homes, and displaced many locals, especially in remote mountainous villages and inaccessible areas. The project is aimed at providing direct support for approximately 7,600 affected families, or 53,200 persons, as well as indirect support for the surrounding local community to mitigate the impact of the disaster and enhance the resilience of the affected populations. With a budget of QR2mn, phase one involves food and nonfood aid for 33,200 beneficiaries and health care services for 20,000 beneficiaries. It will be implemented under the supervision of the QRCS’s office in Afghanistan, in collaboration with the Afghan Red Crescent Society (ARCS), and in co-ordination with local authorities and international clusters to ensure integration, avoid duplication, and maximise the outcomes. QRCS secretary-general Faisal Mohamed al-Emadi said that the first phase will be followed by an early recovery phase, with more sustainable development projects, including the distribution of food parcels, sponsorship and care for orphans, medications for patients with kidney failure, livelihood enhancement for poor families, and digging of water wells. To ensure transparency and accountability, the beneficiaries and local community representatives will be engaged in all steps of implementation, with the QRCS’s team in Afghanistan making regular field visits to monitor timeline and implementation plan. Afghanistan remains in one of the world’s most complex humanitarian crises, being among the most disaster-prone Asian countries due to its geographical location in an active seismic zone, along with frequent droughts, floods, and landslides. According to the Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan 2025 (HNRP) issued by the United Nations Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), between 23mn and 28mn people – more than two-thirds of the population – are in urgent need of humanitarian assistance. It is estimated that 48% of the population lives below the poverty line, while approximately 62% suffer from multidimensional poverty, including health, education, and housing. To help provide food, shelter, and medical care for the victims of the Afghanistan earthquake, the QRCS is calling on all benevolent donors to contribute via website (https://qrcs.qa/AEk), mobile app (https://qrcs.qa/apps), home donation collection (33998898), donor service (66666364), call centre (44027777), or donation collection agents at shopping malls.

As part of the efforts made by the Qatar government and humanitarian organisations to support the resilience of the people, institutions, and vital sectors of Syria, a high-level delegation from Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) arrived at Damascus International Airport Sunday. The delegation was headed by QRCS president Yousef bin Ali al-Khater, secretary-general Faisal Mohamed al-Emadi, assistant secretary-general for Relief and International Development Mohamed Bader al-Sada, and assistant secretary-general for Communication and Resource Development Mohamed Ahmed al-Beshri. They were received by Syria's Minister of Health Dr Musaab Nazzal al-Ali, Qatar embassy in Syria charge d'affaires Khalifa Abdullah al-Mahmoud, Syrian Arab Red Crescent Society (SARCS) president Dr Mohamed Hazem Bakleh, Damascus Health Directorate director Dr Wael Dagmash, representative of Syria’s ministry of foreign affairs and staff of the QRCS’s representation office in Türkiye. The purpose of the humanitarian visit was to deliver a new batch of aid from Qatar under the “Take Heart Syria” initiative, containing medical equipment and supplies donated by Sidra Medicine, Al-Tafa’ol Trading Company, United International Trading Company, and Doha Health Care Group, in co-ordination with the QRCS, SARCS, and Syria’s ministry of health. The delegation from Qatar arrived at Damascus International Airport aboard a Qatar Amiri Air Force aircraft, carrying 12 tonnes of critical and sophisticated medical equipment to help Syrian hospitals continue providing quality healthcare services for patients. This airlift was preceded by three land aid convoys. On August 28, a total of 22 aid trucks started to depart from the warehouses of Sidra Medicine and the QRCS in Doha in three batches. The convoys travelled through Saudi Arabia and Jordan, ending in Syria, with 78 tonnes of aid. Thus, the total volume of aid delivered under the initiative totaled 90 tonnes of medical equipment and supplies, at a value of over QR45mn. In his keynote speech during the event, al-Khater, said: "These combined efforts were meant to send a message of solidarity to Syria, helping revitalise the Syrian healthcare sector and strengthening the capacity of its medical institutions to meet the needs of millions of Syrians.” “Over the past years, the QRCS implemented large-scale projects and programmes covering various sectors, including health, shelter, emergency relief, food security, water and sanitation, and livelihoods, with a total value of $160mn,” he added. “More than 13mn people across the country benefited from these interventions”. The QRCS president promised to keep working hard to ensure the delivery of more aid from Qatar to the people of Syria, as well as to intensify support to provide the Syrian health sector with the vital supplies needed for medical facilities. “In the name of the Syrian government and people, I would like to welcome this medical shipment from the State of Qatar, through the QRCS,” said Syrian Health Minister Dr al-Ali. “This humanitarian initiative is not merely equipment and supplies, but rather a message of genuine solidarity, a new lease on life for our patients, and a renewed hope for our medical professionals, who continue to do their job despite the difficulties and challenges.” Al-Mahmoud described the aid as a practical demonstration of Qatar’s unwavering commitment to supporting the Syrian people. The SARCS’s Dr Bakleh said that the generous initiative represents the deep fraternal ties between the peoples of Syria and Qatar and best embodies the spirit of humanitarian solidarity. Al-Emadi revealed that the aid shipment from Qatar contained X-ray, anaesthesia, and dialysis equipment; advanced laboratory testing equipment; vital signs monitoring machines; ventilators; incubators; radiography and laser imaging systems; plasma and biological storage freezers; cardiac and neurological monitoring devices; clinical decision support systems; stretchers; disinfection and protection tools; medical consumables; first-aid kits; and other equipment that covers a wide range of healthcare services, as an essential boost to rehabilitate medical infrastructure in Syria and enable hospitals to resume some of their suspended or limited services.

An official delegation from Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) has participated as observers in the International Meeting of the Chiefs of Red Cross and Red Crescent National Societies in the Member States of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), held in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, under the theme 'International Year of Peace and Trust – Humanity and Neutrality'.QRCS’s delegation comprised vice president engineer Ibrahim Hashim al-Sada, assistant secretary-general for Communication and Resource Development Mohamed Ahmed al-Beshri, and International Relations head Dr Aiham Ismail al-Sukhni.The two-day conference brought together leaders of the Red Crescent and Red Cross National Societies of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Russia, along with representatives of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).The meetings discussed key humanitarian challenges facing the Central Asia and Mena regions, including the impact of climate change, natural disasters, and armed conflicts; migration; and compliance with international humanitarian law.Participants also addressed how to develop principled humanitarian action, promotion of humanitarian diplomacy, and the role of National Societies as humanitarian auxiliaries to their governments.In a statement, QRCS’s delegation said this participation was aimed at building regional and international cooperation and contributing to the joint efforts to deal with global humanitarian challenges, inspired by QRCS’s mission of serving humanity and preserving human dignity without partiality or discrimination.In the presence of Nasser Ali al-Kaabi, chargé d'Affaires at Qatar's embassy in Turkmenistan, engineer al-Sada signed a bilateral memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Maral Achilova, president of the National Red Crescent Society of Turkmenistan, to enhance cooperation, exchange of expertise, capacity-building, and adoption of best practices when conducting shared projects in the future.Both parties saw the MoU as a step to step up humanitarian partnership and integration within the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement, in alignment with the IFRC’s Strategy 2030, thus helping improve humanitarian response and provide quality services for the most vulnerable people in need.On the sidelines of the conference, QRCS’s delegation held coordination meetings with many officials from the participating fellow National Societies, including Dr Pavel Savchuk, president of the Russian Red Cross, Zafar Rakhmanov, president of the Red Crescent Society of Uzbekistan, Elvira Amiralieva, secretary-general of the Red Crescent Society of Uzbekistan, Jeyhun Mirzayev, secretary-general of the Red Crescent Society of Azerbaijan, his deputy Shaban Shayev, and Nurali Odinaev and Dilorom Mirova, deputy secretaries-general of the Red Crescent Society of Tajikistan.These meetings discussed areas of common cooperation and emphasized the importance of developing partnerships and exchanging expertise to enhance the efficiency of humanitarian response and expand the scope of joint work in the future, a statement added.

Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) recently opened a residential centre for Syrian patients with cancer referred for treatment in Turkiye, as part of a larger project implemented by the Independent Doctors Association (IDA). The project aims to ensure a safe and supportive environment for the patients and their families from Syria with no place to stay during their treatment in Turkiye. This, QRCS noted, would help alleviate their health and living burdens, improve their quality of life, and enhance their prospects of recovery. For 11 months, the centre will host around 1,000 referred patients from Syria, and facilitate their access to specialised healthcare. It will provide appropriate accommodation up to medically recommended health standards, specialised nutrition programmes, transportation to and from Turkish hospitals, psychosocial support, interpreting, and physiotherapy. In addition, the project covers some additional medical expenses not funded by the Turkish health system and provides one-time e-coupons to purchase food and non-food items from contracted stores. Other components of the project include the rehabilitation and equipment of some facilities at the Al-Amal Association Centre, to increase its capacity and improve the care environment. More than 5,000 persons from the patients’ families and community are expected to indirectly benefit from the project. QRCS is also raising funds to provide chemotherapy and immunotherapy drugs for 400 displaced and poor Syrian patients with cancer at the Oncology Centre in Syria. The cost of treatment is only QR10,000 per patient. To help save the lives of those patients, people can donate via the link https://qrcs.qa/dpc