S. Korea provides US$4 mln to help refugees in Iran

SEOUL, Oct. 7 (Yonhap) -- South Korea has provided US$4 million to the World Food Programme (WFP), a United Nations body on food assistance, to help feed Afghan and Iraqi refugees in Iran, the organization said Friday.

The latest financial assistance, pledged in a ceremony in the WFP's Iran office on Wednesday, will be dedicated to helping most vulnerable refugees and improving the educational environment for girls, the WFP said.

The fund enables the WFP to keep up its refugee assistance programs in Iran over the next year, Negar Gerami, the WFP's representative to Iran noted during the ceremony.

With the aid fund, the U.N. body plans to send a monthly provision of rice, bread, sugar, bean and cooking oil to some 30,000 refugees who live in the worst living conditions, according to the WFP.

Another 3,000 girls and female teachers in 19 refugee camps will also be given nutritious cooking oil with high vitamin and micronutrient content in the WFP program aimed to support their school life.

South Korea has been the sponsor of the WFP's Iran refugee assistance project since 2014 and stood as the project's biggest contributing nation as of 2016, the WFP said.

Besides Turkey, Pakistan and Lebanon, Iran is a host to the world's fourth-largest refugee diaspora.

pbr@yna.co.kr
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