RIYADH, 7 January 2003 — BAE Systems launched a program yesterday aimed at encouraging the company’s employees to raise money for Saudi charities.
The initiative, named “Sharik Alkhair”, follows the recent call by Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard, to help the underprivileged sections of society, according to Walid Abukhaled, head of communications at BAE Systems.
“The ‘Sharik Alkhair’, the first humanitarian initiative of its kind by the private sector, has been designed to increase financial resources of charity groups operating in the Kingdom,” he told Arab News yesterday.
Abukhaled added that the project was part of the company’s longstanding policy of assisting local communities in all the countries where it operates.
The company supports the Riyadh-based Disabled Children’s Association (DCA) and has helped needy children by donating employees’ time, skills and technical equipment. The DCA, which functions under the supervision of Prince Sultan ibn Salman, secretary-general of the Supreme Commission for Tourism, provides free health care to the disabled children.
Last month, BAE Systems donated electrical appliances to Al-Ihsan Charity in Alkhobar, using the money generated by the company staff.
BAE Systems is one of the world’s largest employers in the engineering and technology sectors, with more than 120,000 staff.
In the Kingdom, it operates in conjunction with the Royal Saudi Air Force and the Royal Saudi Navy. It trained more than 1,000 employees, a majority of them Saudi nationals, in the Kingdom last year.
