Visit to Kuwait

UNIW was in a two-day work visit to Kuwait. In our visit, we met with leading NGOs and opinion leaders of the country.

On the first day of our visit, we met with the former Kuwait Justice & Waqf Minister, Mr Jamal Al-Shihab, and Undersecretary Mr Muhammed Al-Othman. We shared information regarding our recent activities and projects with Mr Jamal, who has supported many of our previous programs. In particular, we consulted him on the progress of International Civil Society Academy. He reiterated that the program is of utmost importance for the NGOs in the Islamic world and the Undersecretary underlined that it is necessary to work together to make it successful. The Minister later shared his views and recommendations on the content and syllabus of the project. He also emphasized the need to increase the number of joint projects throughout the Islamic world in order to ensure better coordination among NGOs and state institutions.

In the afternoon, we visited the headquarters of one of our member, the International Islamic Charity Organization (IICO). We met with their General Manager, Mr Bader Saud Alsumait, along with their Deputy Director of Charity Projects, Mr Abdurrahman Almutawa. Together we had discussed on our previous and upcoming projects.

On the second day of our visit, we visited H.E. Mdm Ayse Hilal Koytak, our Ambassador to Kuwait. We briefed her on the projects worked by UNIW and informed her on the details of our visit to Kuwait. We had also provided her with information on our members and stakeholders in Kuwait.

The Ambassador wishes that we will have closer cooperation between these two friendly countries, with more joint projects and higher trade volumes. As Turkey and Kuwait are having good relations in cultural and political terms, the Ambassador is optimist that it is a clear indicator to further improve their relationships to higher levels.

As Kuwaits ranks at the top of the world in terms of national income per capita, there are many areas that Turkey can cooperate with them, especially to provide significant assistances to the underdeveloped and poor countries in the Islamic world. In that context, NGOs, who are in direct contact with the public, are of great importance to ensure balanced and organized distribution of aids, with good cooperation and coordination among the civil societies and state institutions.

For the rest of the day, we had met with Kuwait opinion leaders. We talked with them about the good works done by UNIW and on how we held our meetings in two different cities every year. These people, who are mostly chairman and managers in various institutions had expressed their pleasure of the existence of an institution such as UNIW and they welcomed our presence in their country. They even asked to be sent with documents for membership applications upon our return to Turkey.