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OPT: OIC to launch "Saudi Arabia's Educational Convoy" to Gaza

The Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) plans to launch "Saudi Arabia's Educational Convoy" as part of the humanitarian campaign initiated by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques to provide relief to Palestinians in Gaza. The planned convoy will provide 'integrated school bags' for students in the Gaza Strip.

The OIC will organize the campaign in cooperation with the Committee of Private Schools at the Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCI) in Jeddah and bookstores. The campaign will seek to cater to the educational needs of Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, as well as rehabilitate schools damaged by the brutal Israeli aggression on Gaza.

The OIC and the CCI Committee of Private Schools will examine next week the various aspects relevant to the campaign, which is likely to be officially launched in upcoming mid-Ramadan in a bid to meet the demands of the new school year.

The 'Saudi Educational Convoy' will enlist the participation of schools from across the Kingdom and bookstores in addition to traditional donors.

The educational convoy falls within the framework of the relief campaign launched by the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques for the assistance of Palestinians in Gaza.

This will be the fourth convoy within the campaign, as three others were previously launched by the OIC, the latest of which was the largest.

It needs to be recalled that the third convoy was conducted under the gracious patronage of H.R.H. Prince Khalid Al-Faisal, Governor of Makkah Region, and kick-started on 6th May 2009 by H.R.H. Prince Mish'al bin Majed bin Abdul Aziz, Governor of Jeddah. The convoy consisted of medial material and equipment weighing over a thousand ton and valued at three million dollars.

In the same vein, a number of hospitals in the Gaza Strip have received so far ten ambulances, along with surgical medical units as part of the humanitarian convoy dispatched in early May 2009. An ophthalmology clinic, too, is under construction in the Gaza Strip, set to commence work in the foreseeable future.