Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah, supervisor general of King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSrelief) was the keynote speaker at the conference of International Pediatric Endosurgery Group (IPEG) in Santiago, Chile, recently. More than 650 doctors from North and South America, Europe, Asia and Africa, representing 57 countries, attended the conference. Highlighting the role played by Saudi Arabia in international humanitarian work, particularly among children who needed medical support, Al-Rabeeah gave the audience a background on the Kingdom"s health care system and its current transformation under the ambitious Saudi Vision 2030 initiative. He explained that the Kingdom contributes to the well-being of children in need through such unique initiatives as the Saudi National Conjoined Twins Program, which was founded and headed by Al-Rabeeah himself. Since 1990, Al-Rabeeah, an expert in performing complicated separation surgeries, and his team evaluated 106 cases of conjoined twins from 20 countries and successfully separated 47 of these sets of twins. The program is considered to be one of the most successful and advanced of its kind in the world, and is also one of the best-known Saudi humanitarian initiatives. During his presentation, Al-Rabeeah said the Kingdom was one of the world"s top humanitarian donors, providing aid and relief to 79 countries. To unify Saudi humanitarian efforts, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman established KSrelief in May of 2015. Since then, KSrelief has provided aid to 44 countries, with nearly 62 percent of its funding going to help the Yemeni people. Al-Rabeeah talked about innovative methods used by KSrelief to reach out to all parts of Yemen and deliver urgent humanitarian assistance. In some areas such as Taiz, for example, which were under siege by armed Houthi militia groups for many months, camels and donkeys were used to transport oxygen cylinders to hospitals to save many lives. Coalition aircraft were also utilized to airdrop medical and food aid into hard-to-reach areas. Al Rabeeah also outlined a few of the Kingdom"s other pioneering humanitarian initiatives. One of these is the Child Soldiers Rehabilitation Program, which helps children recruited by the Houthi militias and others severely traumatized by the ongoing conflict to heal and to reintegrate into their families and communities. Another important KSrelief program is MASAM, a Saudi-funded land mine clearance program designed to clear the country of the more than 1 million explosive devices planted by the Houthis. Thus far, the project teams have located, deactivated and destroyed more than 50,000 land mines and other unexploded ordnance, saving thousands from possible death and injuries. In another important KSrelief initiative in Yemen, several Artificial Limbs Centers were established in the country to provide amputees, most of whom victims of land mine explosions, with prosthetic devices to help them return to normal lives. In his closing remarks, Al-Rabeeah encouraged the medical professionals in the audience to consider volunteering their time and expertise to help those in need around the world. He told his colleagues, "Together, as surgeons and physicians, we can make a significant and positive impact on the lives of children and others who desperately need our help." — SG
