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US pledges $50 million to support higher education in Lebanon

US pledges $50 million to support higher education in Lebanon

The administrator of the United States Agency for International Development, Samantha Power. (Credit: Richard Salame/L'Orient Today)

BEIRUT — The United States pledged $50 million to support higher education in Lebanon on Thursday, after it announced a $72 in humanitarian assistance the previous day, the administrator of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), Samantha Power, announced during a visit to Lebanon. 

Power said that "of the $50 million, $15 million will support 140 full undergraduate scholarships" to the American University of Beirut, the Lebanese American University, and Notre Dame University-Louaize AUB and LAU for financially disadvantaged yet academically meritorious students. "The remainder of the funds will provide partial need-based financial aid for about 3,500 students over the next three years to help students who can no longer afford tuition amidst Lebanon’s economic crisis," she added.

In a press conference after a meeting with Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri and Prime Minister-designate Najib Mikati, Power said she "urged them to put the need of the people first and put an end to the vacancy in the presidency."

Lebanon is currently suffering its first double executive vacancy— without a president and with only a caretaker cabinet. Earlier in the day Thursday, Parliament failed to elect a new president during its fifth presidential election session.

"Lebanon needs a leader that would stop pointing fingers and stop blaming outside forces and start solving problems for the people who have waited so much," Power said.

She also described the recent maritime border deal between Lebanon and Israel as a "historic agreement" and said it "breathed new life into Lebanon’s economic prospects." 

USAID said on Wednesday that the $72 million in humanitarian aid aims at helping to feed hundreds of thousands of Lebanese who are currently struggling to put food on the table amid the country's ongoing economic crisis.

Power said the aid would allow 660,000 new beneficiaries to be added to the list of people who are already receiving support from USAID.

Power told L’Orient Today on Wednesday that the “USA has been supporting Syrian refugees in Lebanon, and Lebanon as the host country, however because of the grave economic crisis facing the country, Lebanese families themselves are now also relying on the aid, something they had never envisioned for themselves before.”

BEIRUT — The United States pledged $50 million to support higher education in Lebanon on Thursday, after it announced a $72 in humanitarian assistance the previous day, the administrator of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), Samantha Power, announced during a visit to Lebanon. Power said that "of the $50 million, $15 million will support 140 full undergraduate...