A statement issued by the office of the EC on Saturday said the funding covers a period of six months starting July 1 and ending on December 31. The main aim of the aid is to save lives by providing secure access to food and safeguarding nutritional status of the refugee beneficiaries, the statement read. [break]
The specific objective of this action is to work toward safeguarding lives and maintaining nutritional status of dependent refugee populations residing in seven different camps in eastern Nepal and meet their basic food consumption needs, the statement added.
It further added that the fund aims at improving and stabilizing the nutritional status of refugee population, particularly among vulnerable groups, including children under five, pregnant and lactating women as well as those who are chronically ill.
The EC assistance to Bhutanese refugees started in the year 2006 and the total disbursements by the Humanitarian office alone has reached nine million Euros till date. The delegation of the European Union to Nepal also supports them through the UNHCR.
ECHO has been actively involved in humanitarian works in disaster hit areas around the world through its 44 country offices and 200 national as well as 100 expatriate technical experts.
In 2009, it provided over 887 million Euros in humanitarian assistance through ECHO only in the five continents.
In addition, ECHO currently has two financing decisions being implemented in Nepal through international NGOs, UN organizations and the ICRC.
They are first, Global Plan 2009 (6 million €) focusing on Food assistance, Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH), Health, Response to natural disasters and second, the DIPECHO 5th Action plan (2.8 million €) focusing on disaster preparedness and disaster risk reduction.
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