Kuwait Donates Another $25 Million for Katrina Relief

Representatives of Kuwait Dr. Hilal Al-Sayer, and Sheikh Salem Abdullah Al-Sabah, have delivered a $25 million check for the Hurricane Katrina relief fund, the second installment of a donation that will total $500 million.

The check was delivered to the chairman of the board of governors of the Red Cross, Bonnie McElveen-Hunter, Thursday morning at the Red Cross' landmark headquarters building near the White House.

"This gift represents the true friendship that the people of Kuwait feel for the people of the United States," Jack McGuire, president and CEO of the American Red Cross, told NewsMax.

McElveen-Hunter noted to NewsMax the historic nature of the gift, saying, "This is the largest ever from an international society. We've been partners before, but this time we are the recipient."

The overall Kuwaiti pledge is the single largest donation given to help the victims of hurricane Katrina.

McElveen-Hunter went on to note that the American Red Cross had 220,000 "boots on the ground" in the Katrina/Rita/Wilma ravaged areas. She added that that was more than the number of troops on the ground in Iraq.

Of the total Kuwait government pledge of $500 million, $400 million is in the form of oil products, with the remaining $100 million in cash. Thursday's check represents the second $25 million cash installment – the first having been formally presented to former presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton, who were appointed to spearhead contributions to Katrina relief.

Representatives of Kuwait further explained that another $2.8 million donation had come directly from the "people of Kuwait" this past November and is over and above the formal pledge of the Kuwait government.

At the time of the government pledge, Kuwait energy minister Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahd al-Sabah explained, "It's our duty as Kuwaitis to stand by our friends to lighten the humanitarian misery and as a payback for the many situations during which Washington helped us through the significant relations between the two friendly countries."

Kuwait is in fact one of the U.S.'s strongest allies in the Middle East, due to the U.S. protection of Kuwait in 1991 during the Gulf War.

In her remarks to the Kuwait ambassador and Red Crescent representative, McElveen-Hunter noted the special relationship between the two countries, saying, "You were there for us."

According to Al-Sayer, vice president of the Kuwait Red Crescent Society, the organization is a voluntary humanitarian society providing help and assistance to the most vulnerable people without any discrimination to nationality, gender, color, race, religion or political beliefs.

The Kuwait Red Crescent Society (KRCS) assumed a leading role in responding to the tsunami catastrophe, which hit the Indonesian Sumatra region - also reaching Sri Lanka, India, the Maldives Islands and Thailand.

KRCS also has provided relief some $16 million worth of relief supplies to victims of the Pakistan earthquakes disaster of August 2005.

Al-Sayer recounted Thursday his experience going through U.S. Customs during his visit this week to Washington D.C.

In response to an official's inquiry as to whether he was carrying more than $10,000 on his person, al-Sayer made a startling confession: Yes, he was carrying a check for $25 million.