Speech #880062197

The U.S. Government also contributed. through the American Red Cross. large quantities of food. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has been the main source of aid to Tibetan refugees in Nepal. Working with the Nepal International Refugee Relief Committee and a few private organizations. ICRC has provided medicines. medical aid. food. clothing. and shelter. A handicraft center has been established. Red Cross funds have been provided for emergencies and for a resettlement project at Dhor Ptan in West Nepal. (c) United Nations High Commissioner for Regugees (UNHCR): The UNHCR. an agency of the United Nations established in 1951 to promote. organize. and supervise international action on behalf of refugees. in 1961 firmly settled 12.155 refugees in Europe. a 60percent increase over the 1960 figure of 7.658. Completion of housing projects in Germany accounted for 4.574 of those settled. Of the total. about 6.800 were living outofcamps. At present there are still 70.000 outofcamp refugees and 9.000 in camps. Completion of this project is scheduled for 1963. At the end of March 1963. after 11 years of the joint UNHCR/ICEM Far Eastern operation. 2.500 Europeans still remained in China. The High Commissioner has appealed to governments to make a special effort to grant visas. High Commissioner Felix Schnyder accepted an invitation to become a member of the Tripartite Commission established for the repatriation of Algerian refugees. the other members being the representatives of the French Government and of the Algerian Provisional Authority. The High Commissioner. with the help of the League of Red Cross Societies. provided material aid to the authorities engaged in the work of repatriation and resettlement and used his good offices to secure for the Algerian authorities the material aid required. The High Commissioner has also used his good offices to initiate action on behalf of refugees from Angola. refugees in Togo. where he appointed a Charge de Mission who assumed his duties in May. refugees from Ruanda in Tanganyika. Uganda. and Burundi. refugees in the Kivu Province of the Congo (L~opoldville). and Chinese refugees in Macao. (d) United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA): UNRWA is an Agency of the United Nations. supported by the voluntary contributions of member governments. whose purpose is to provide food. health services. education. shelter. and vocational training to approximately 1 million Arab refugees from Palestine. The Agency presently is concentrating upon development of an expanded vocational training program so that young refugees--some 30.000 reach maturity every yearmay realize their potentlalities and be equipped to earn a living. A fourpoint. 3year plan has been adopted with the following aims: to expand vocational training to the point where UNRWA can turn out about 2.000 graduates annually. to increase the number of university scholarships granted from 90 to 180 annually. to improve the Agencys basic education program and to continue a modest loangrant program to help qualified refugees put their acquired skills to use in enterprises of their own. At present UNRWA has nine vocational training centers (seven for boys and two for girls) either in operation or near completion. When all centers are operating at full capacIty. 4.200 refugee trainees will be enrolled. To help pay for their training UNRWA appealed for the contribution from private sources of two thousand $500 scholarships in 1962 and another two thousand in 1963. Each scholarship pays for the training of a student for 1 year. As of May 1962. 1.443 scholarships had either been paid or firmly pledged. . During the past academic year. there was an increase of 48 in the total number of UNRWA university scholarship holders. making a total of 450 scholarship holders since The basic education program is expanding and improving. Refugee pupils attending the 397 UNRWA schools. which employ 3.993 teachers. number 142.183. School enrollment has increased by 7.233 in- the past year. Facilities have been expanded and 274 new schoolrooms are now being completed.