The dispatch of relief supplies comes after the Council of Ministers endorsed a comprehensive plan last Monday to provide humanitarian aid to the Iraqis.

A team of the Saudi Red Crescent Society recently visited Basra and the Iraqi Red Crescent’s headquarters to study the needs of the Iraqi people. The visit covered the headquarters of the Iraqi Red Crescent Society and Basra’s districts.

Salim Al-Dosary, a member of the team, told Arab News that relief supplies will be distributed in coordination with the Iraqi society. He said there was an acute shortage of mineral water in Iraq.

Dosary did not rule out other Saudi assistance for the Iraqis.

Ahmed Hamoud Al-Dhayyab, director of the Hana Water Factory in the Kingdom, said his company had donated about 600 containers of water and 150 bags of sugar in addition to unspecified quantities of foodstuffs.

He said the company’s board of directors would meet shortly to decide other possible donations to alleviate the suffering of Iraqis. The company was planning to send relief supplies to Iraq every week for three months.

Prince Talal Ibn Abdul Aziz, president of the Arab Gulf Program for United Nations Development Organizations (AGFUND) also announced $1 million in donations to help alleviate the suffering of the Iraqi people. Nearly half a million Iraqi children are reported to be either injured or rendered homeless by the war in Iraq, according to an estimate.

“The donations will be distributed through the UN agencies and international organizations working in Iraq,” AGFUND said, adding that the donations had been earmarked primarily to help women and children. More than 5,000 children in Iraq are currently in need of special treatment and social therapy to enable them to return to normal life.

There are 5.7 million children of primary school age in Iraq and most of them do not attend school at the moment.

AGFUND has, since its inception in 1980, contributed $34,920,967 to 211 projects in the field of education alone, of which 52 projects at a total contribution of $19,850,000 have been supported by AGFUND within the framework of its collaboration with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).