DAMASCUS, April 6, 2007 (WAFA) - Mrs. Asmaa al-Assad opened department of small financing in Damascus with the attendance of Commissioner-General of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Karen Koning Abu Zayd. " Projects of small financing had left its impacts on the society through improving standard of living of owners of such projects and reducing poverty and unemployment," Mrs. al-Assad, handing four checks to four borrowers, said. Earlier, in the year 2003 Mrs. Al-Assad opened department of small financing / al-Yarmouk Branch/ where 7236 loans amounting to million 244 S.P. were offered.

Department of small financing project had gained the first prize of competition of the Arab Gulf Program for United Nations Development Organizations (AGFUND).

UNRWA (the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East) is a relief and human development agency, providing education, healthcare, social services and emergency aid to over 4 million refugees living in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and the Syrian Arab republic.

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