QATAR Gives $1 Million to Anera

November 7, 2008 | We are pleased to announce that Anera just received a donation of $1 million from the Emir of Qatar to fund our deliveries of vitamin-fortified milk and biscuits to preschool children in Gaza.

Anera started the Milk for Preschoolers Program in 2003 after co-sponsoring a study that showed young children in Gaza were suffering from anemia, vitamin A deficiency, and chronic malnutrition. Many were at risk of irreversible physical and neurological damage.

The program has provided approximately 20,000 children in over 160 preschools with a box of fortified milk and a packet of fortified wafers. This small snack ensures that preschoolers, during crucial growing and development years, have at least one source of nutritious food each day.

Providing milk and biscuits to children may sound easy, but it takes on an entirely new tone when the location is Gaza. The work requires constant vigilance and creativity to negotiate the supplies through the complications of closed borders, to find enough gasoline for delivery trucks and to ensure the safety of field monitors and staff who work with children, parents, and teachers throughout the area.

Our Milk for Preschoolers program has earned the respect of many funders who see Anera capably filling a major unmet need, in a desperate location. This $1 million grant from the Qatar government is a wonderful endorsement of our ability to deliver and to do so with the highest standards of accountability and responsibility.

Anera stands committed to the people of Gaza. With donors like the Emir, we look forward to serving these growing children and their parents well into a future that produces stability and opportunities for all.

– See more at: https://www.anera.org/newsResources/ANERAReceives1MillionFromQatar.php#sthash.mc0PGTqI.dpuf