The government of Italy donated $3.5 million to UNICEF Lebanon to support children affected in the Beirut blast through the organization’s Humanitarian Action for Children (HAC) program.
Italy was one of the many countries to provide emergency humanitarian assistance to the people of Beirut immediately after the explosion on August 4th.
The donation will go to funding education and child protection services, according to the press release announcing Italy’s contribution to UNICEF.
With the funding, UNICEF will be able to provide the necessary equipment to up to 90 public schools to make the transition back to school easier for children who have suffered the traumatic explosion.
It will also “serve as a psychosocial intervention to victims of abuse, neglect, and exploitation,” the release stated.
The director of the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation in Beirut, Donatella Procesi, said that funding UNICEF “allows an effective response to the immediate needs of children and their families affected by the consequences of the explosions.”
Since 2012, Italy has provided more than $13 million to UNICEF Lebanon. For the last 74 years, UNICEF has met the humanitarian needs of vulnerable children around the world.
