September 12, 2021, Socotra Online
Editorial team
The UAE development and relief aid to the island of Socotra was the most prominent factor in the archipelago’s overcoming of the many challenges and unusual humanitarian conditions it faced during the period from 2015 until today. The total aid provided to the island from 2015 to 2021 amounted to more than 110 million dollars, according to official reports and data.
The list of donors of aid included the Emirates Red Crescent, Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan Foundation, the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development, and the Center for Waste Management –Abu Dhabi.
Where the aid covered most of the vital sectors in the governorate, such as social and health services, commodity aid, transportation and storage, education, construction and civil development, power generation and supply, water and public health, in addition to supporting government work and civil society.
On the health side, the UAE has contributed to raising the efficiency of the sector on the island by supporting and operating hospitals and medical centers, providing medical equipment and ambulances, constructing an emergency building and providing it with the latest equipment, two operating rooms, 13 beds, and a recovery room in accordance with international standards, in addition to the expansion of Sheikh Khalifa Hospital and the increase in the number of beds. Patients were transferred to 42 beds, in addition to equipping 4 beds in the intensive care department, adding a dialysis unit that includes 5 dialysis devices, preparing CT scans with 16 devices, and adding specialties that are the first of their kind in urology, emergency, heart and kidney surgery, in addition to a mobile clinic for the people of the regions.
In the electricity and water sector, the UAE has established 4 power stations, changed the aerial network to a ground one, distributed generators to remote villages, inaugurated a distribution network for more than 30 sites, and provided streets with solar-powered lighting, as well as establishing two solar power stations in Hadiboh. With a capacity of 2.2 megawatts and in Qalansiyah with a capacity of 800 kilowatts, the installation of water tank sterilization stations, the installation and construction of new tanks with a capacity of 50,000, the supply of wells with electric generators, in addition to the drilling of 48 artesian wells and the installation of pumps to extract water using solar energy.
At the level of development projects, the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development supported the island with a package of projects that included the construction and reconstruction sectors, the construction of a drinking water plant, and the financing of the solar power plant project. The fund also contributed to providing advisory services on the island.
In the education sector, the UAE provided educational grants for university studies, where 80 male and female students were sent to study in Egypt and 40 male and female students to study at the UAE University, in conjunction with other educational projects such as rehabilitating the governorate’s schools, maintaining and restoring them, and building new classrooms for various academic levels, while the Socotra Institute for Consultation and Training was opened. Rehabilitation of all cadres of the province and government agencies. The UAE has supplemented the education sector on the island by appointing teachers from abroad, contracting with approximately 440 teachers on the island’s level, bringing in 17 teachers from Egypt in scientific disciplines, in addition to organizing remedial lessons for high school students, opening two laboratories in the governorate, opening Ataya Model School and printing 227 thousand textbooks for all students. The stages, as well as sponsoring cultural and scientific competitions for students, establishing and establishing the University of the Socotra Archipelago, and opening two faculties with which studies will begin in 2021.
In the same context, the UAE continued to help couples to get married by organizing mass weddings, which amounted to 4 weddings, which contributed to strengthening families’ stability and facilitating young people who are about to get married. It supported the establishment of sports activities by rehabilitating sports clubs and holding events, festivals and competitions such as the league and cup competitions at the football level, in addition to rehabilitating and training the Football Association’s administration, administrators, coaches and referees.
The Emirati support comes within the noble humanitarian positions carried out by the Emirati charitable arms in various countries in general and Yemen in particular, given the historical, family and social relationship that binds the people of Socotra to the UAE since ancient times throughout the ages.
