DAMMAM, 20 September 2004 — An official of the Ministry of Civil Defense has cited Filipinos in the Eastern Province for helping in cleaning up the coast of Dammam on Friday.

“I thank you for helping keep our country, also your home, very clean,” a grateful Maj. Ahmed Awad Al-Qahtani said during a brief ceremony at the Prince Mohammad ibn Fahd Half Moon Beach.

“This is my second time to be with Filipinos. First, during the discussion on peace and security, and today on this clean-up drive,” he said through a megaphone.

Al-Qahtani — whose speech in Arabic was translated by interpreter Andi Bajunaid of the Philippine Embassy’s Labor Office - was also the speaker on the OFW preparedness plan during the height of the Iraq invasion last year.

Led by Labor Attaché Delmer Cruz and members of the embassy’s Eastern Region Operations, over a thousand Filipinos, young and old, responded to the call to join the cleanup in support of the Saudi government’s program on peace and cleanliness.

The event was in celebration of the 2004 International Coastal Cleanup Day, in line with the World Cleanup Day of the United Nations Environment Program.

The participants were mostly parents, teachers and students of the three Philippine schools in the region who joined hands, for the first time in a major event, to clean the beach of plastic bottles, papers, and other garbage.

The three schools were the International Philippine School in Alkhobar (IPSA), Philippine School in Dammam (PSD), and the Al Andalus International School (AAIS).

Majdi Al-Ayed, a project leader of Al-Baik in Jeddah which is spearheading the clean-up drive in Saudi Arabia, also appreciated the participation of the Filipino community.

More than 30 Filipino community organizations under the All Filipino Community and Sports Commission (Afcscom) and the OFW Congress also assisted in the coastal cleanup.

Borja said that the initiative, which is the first of its kind by an expat community in the Eastern Region, was intended as a goodwill effort of the embassy and the Filipino community towards the host country and its government.

The effort had projected the Filipinos as a socially responsible and civic conscious members of the society at large in Saudi Arabia in which the OFWs temporarily live in.

“The community would manifest, through this celebration, its concern for the preservation and protection of the marine environment and ecosystem not only for the present but more so for the succeeding generations,” Borja said.

Cruz read the message of Ambassador Bahnarim Guinomla who was not able to make it during the event. Guinomla commended the schools and the Filipino community for “their awareness of the importance of protecting the environment.”