Awareness on social issues high among Saudis, shows survey

JEDDAH: A survey carried out by the National Initiative for Social Solidarity has revealed how people in the Kingdom understand social bonding and other community-related issues.

Ninety percent of the people surveyed answered yes when asked: “Do you think that the Saudi family is dependent on the father and that they could help him, one way or the other?”

About 300,000 copies of the questionnaire, containing 44 questions about various social issues, were distributed until the beginning of May after the launch of the initiative this March. The initiative is the first collaboration between the Ministry of Social Affairs and Derte Al-Ghaliah, a nonprofit organization specialized in social responsibility and development.

Hadeel Abdulrazaq Bougary, executive director of Derte Al-Ghaliah and the initiative’s general supervisor, said the survey is aimed at estimating how much the community knows about social bonding, which is defined as the integration and degree and type of integration shown by a society, and the social relations that bind people to one another.

“The idea stemmed from a desire to learn about the Saudi citizens’ opinions about development issues,” said Bougary. “We want to come up with ways for the community to support itself, find solutions to its problems and increase the level of social bonding at all levels of society.”

She said the survey targeted 300,000-500,000 people. “Our goal is to study their opinions and then convey the results to the authorities,” she added.

Bougary said when the questionnaire was first distributed, women were less responsive. At first, only 24 percent of participants were women. “Women were afraid. When we raised the issue in the media and held women responsible for their inaction, the number of women participants increased dramatically,” she said.

Bougary pointed out that 60 to 65 percent of the survey’s participants were young people. This indicates that the younger generation has the potential to serve all levels of society and share the values of bonding.

“We discovered that young people are willing to give, but they don’t know how or where to go to make use of their time and energy,” said Bougary.

She said the final results of the survey would be announced at the end of the month.

According to Bougary, from 400 to 1,300 questionnaires are filled out on a daily basis, which shows people’s interest in sharing their opinions.

Princess Nora Saud Al-Kabeer, chairwoman of the company, said at the launch of the initiative that the move would pave the way for future development and cooperation to serve public interest. “It will help achieve the goals and visions of sustainable partnership between the public and private sectors,” she added.