Regarding the overall commitment for the Middle East, the $1.1 billion, $840 million will be dedicated to humanitarian assistance, and $270 million to development projects.
I announced last week a $400,000 project that will be going on, and it includes the matching funds.
I'll just rewind a little. You remember that we had a matching fund. It started last September, and at the end of December, Canadians had given $12 million. We decided, because the NGOs asked me, to postpone the date to the end of February, and the recognized organizations got $32 million, more or less.
We matched this fund, and doubled it. We decided to dedicate this amount to three UNICEF projects. The biggest one is the Makani centres. I had the opportunity to visit a Makani centre in Jordan. I would call it an alternative school. It is a place where children and teenagers can go to catch up on their studies and training. Most of them were out of school for one, two, even three years, so they have to catch up to be able to go back to a real school. As I said earlier, it is so important to get these kids in school. It is one way to avoid early and forced marriage. We are trying to avoid having the kids working and we are trying to keep boys in school, so there is less chance to have them recruited by extremist groups. It is very important. These Makani centres also give psychosocial assistance to these kids who have suffered greatly.
I will give you a few examples.
The matching fund also includes school supplies and learning materials in Syria, and a national immunization campaign. This is the matching fund, and we are doing it through UNICEF. We decided to increase our contribution right away up to $100 million; we were ready to match up to $100 million, so we decided to do so right away. An additional $23 million is for projects in Syria: food assistance, access to essential primary care service, clean water and sanitation, and help for farmers to restore their farms. Another $33 million is for projects in Iraq, and $11 million for projects in Jordan and Lebanon.
This is the first step, and now we are discussing with the international organizations, because it is the first time they have had the opportunity to plan projects for more than one year. This is very innovative in terms of financing humanitarian assistance. They are working on designing three-year projects, so we are waiting for their response. We are also ready to respond to specific needs as they come.
Thank you.