Government | Thursday 19 September, 2019 3:02 am |

The general supervisor of the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSRelief), Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah, has been named the winner of the 2019 moderation award.

Makkah Gov. Prince Khaled Al-Faisal made the announcement at a ceremony held on Wednesday in Jeddah.

The award, in its third year, is considered one of the most important in promoting the values of moderation and combating extremism, both internally and externally.

Al-Rabeeah has held 13 positions that contributed to his selection for the award, most notably minister of health, and pediatric surgery consultant, a role in which he performed 47 operations for conjoined twins from 20 countries.

The Saudi National Siamese Twins Separation Program is a global reference and one of Saudi Arabia’s most distinguished medical humanitarian initiatives worldwide.

In December 1990, Al-Rabeeah hit local and international headlines after making history in the Kingdom by performing complex surgery to separate the first conjoined Saudi twins at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center in Riyadh.

The case of the conjoined Malaysian twins Ahmed and Mohammed was particularly demanding. The family of the two children appealed to the Kingdom’s government to conduct the separation operation, and Al-Rabeeah carried out successful surgery lasting 23.5 hours in September 2002, by royal request.

After taking over as general supervisor of KSRelief, Al-Rabeeah oversaw 176 projects in 37 countries, including key areas such as food security, health, water, sanitation, education, women, children, vaccination and shelter.

He also implemented the directives of King Salman, providing various humanitarian and relief programs and building partnerships and community support with other countries.

The center executed 1,050 projects in 44 countries in addition to 225 projects dedicated to women and 224 for children.