Preparations are under way by the Red Crescent Authority (RCA) for the forthcoming nationwide campaign which will be launched on June 29 to collect donations for Yemen to counter food shortages in that country.

“The RCA has mobilised all its human resources and volunteers for the campaign to realise the aspirations of the wise leadership and show the maximum solidarity (to improve) the current humanitarian conditions in Yemen,” said chairman of the board of the RCA Ahmed Humaid Al-Mazrouie.

“The agency’s office in Sanaa is assessing the needs in Yemeni areas that are the most affected by food shortages in order to draw up a support plan.

“The RCA is fully prepared to implement ambitious programmes to provide food aid and medicines for people affected by the developments in Yemen by donations to be raised in the said campaign. The RCA has been operating in Yemen since 1981.”

The humanitarian agency is coordinating with its partners, namely the Khalifa Bin Zayed Humanitarian Foundation and the Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Humanitarian & Charity Foundation.

The campaign which will be launched in cooperation with all media outlets is in line with the directives by the President, His Highness Shaikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, and on the orders of General Shaikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces. The initiative is followed up by Shaikh Hamdan bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Ruler’s Representative in the Western Region and Chairman of the RCA.

The new campaign aims to raise donations to improve the humanitarian situation in Yemen and follows a grant of Dh500 million to Yemen by Shaikh Khalifa as food aid.

The campaign is part of the humanitarian responsibility taken up by the UAE to alleviate the humanitarian suffering in Yemen and stand for Yemeni brothers as the UAE has been following with concern the consequences of food shortages on a large number of the country’s population and on children in particular as malnutrition has become highly common among them.

The RCA, in a statement last night, noted that Yemeni children bear the brunt of the current situation in the country which requires the joining of philanthropic efforts in the UAE to save the threatened children in Yemen.