UNRWA delegation visits OFID, presents DG with Distinguished Donors Award

On July 11, 2012, OFID Director-General Mr. Suleiman J. Al-Herbish received a senior delegation from the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), comprising Mr Peter Ford, Representative of the Commissioner-General, and Mr Robert Turner, Director of Operations in Gaza. The meeting included a briefing on UNRWA’s work and a general discussion on current and future cooperation between the two institutions. Also present was Palestinian Ambassador, Dr Zuheir Al-Wazeer, Rachid Bencherif, Acting Head, Grants Unit and Mauro Hoyer, Director, Information Department.

During the meeting, Mr Al-Herbish was presented with the UNRWA Award for Distinguished Donors, a glass plaque certifying that an olive tree had been planted in his name in Palestine, in recognition of his and OFID’s support for Palestinian refugees. Accepting the Award on behalf of the OFID Family, the Director-General said that it was “OFID’s privilege to be able to offer Palestinians hope for the future.” He conveyed also his wish that OFID’s partnership with UNRWA would continue to bear fruit. In recent years, OFID’s cooperation with UNRWA has included support to Palestinian micro-enterprises, to UNRWA’s Scholarship Fund and Job Creation Program, and to the reconstruction of schools at the Nahr el-Bared refugee camp in Lebanon.