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BAZNAS cooperates with Jordanian NGO to help Palestinian refugees
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he National Alms Agency (BAZNAS), which is sanctioned by the government to manage the national alms, is currently working with a Jordanian NGO called the Jordan Hashemite Charity Organization for Relief and Development (JHCO) to help Palestinian refugees.
The cooperation agreement was officially announced at a meeting between BAZNAS and the JHCO on July 18 in Jakarta. It was attended by BAZNAS chairman Bambang Sudibyo and his deputy, Zainulbahar Noor, along with JHCO secretary-general Ayman R. al-Mufleh. Both organizations have disbursed a US$150,000 fund to help around 2.2 million Palestinian refugees living in Amman, Jordan.
The JHCO is an NGO focusing on humanitarian issues across Asia, Europe, Africa and North America, especially Palestinian refugees in Jordan.
The donation is equal to the fund that BAZNAS disbursed to Rohingya refugees from Rakhine state, Myanmar, a while ago. The Palestinian refugee camp in Amman is said to be the biggest outside Palestine. The refugees lack basic amenities, medical equipment and medicine. Another pressing issue that they face in the Amman camp is unemployment.
Bambang said the refugees needed the aid badly because they were currently facing a very difficult situation, which could worsen when winter comes.
To help the refugees, BAZNAS called on other international institutions and NGOs, including the United Nations, to engage in a collective effort to ensure that they can enjoy a decent standard of living.
Bambang said by cooperating with relevant stakeholders to mitigate the refugees’ suffering, BAZNAS was working on one of the mandates it had received as the secretary-general of the World Zakat Fund: to become a global alms movement leader.
“BAZNAS wants to play an active role in handling various international humanitarian issues,” Bambang added.
BAZNAS has worked before with the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) to address the Palestine issue.
