MADINAH, 13 March 2005 — In a first for the Kingdom, hundreds of orphaned youngsters will get the chance to grow up in families with a foster mother to care for them — and love them.
Madinah Governor Prince Muqrin laid the cornerstone of Taiba Children’s Village for Orphans. The project is the work of the Taiba Women’s Charity, which was established more than 20 years ago to serve the women’s community of the holy city of Madinah.
The idea of this project originated in January 2001, when a meeting was organized by Prince Muqrin. The project is being developed in two stages. The first stage is the Taiba Children’s Village for Orphans and Waqf Buildings Project. The project contains 16 apartment buildings with a total of 64 apartments. Each apartment contains two bedrooms, a living room, two bathrooms, a kitchen and a room for the mother. The village also includes a kindergarten, capable of accommodating more than 150 youngsters, along with other facilities.
The village is considered the first project in the Kingdom and Gulf region to provide this level of care to orphaned children. More than 384 children are expected to benefit from the project, which cost more than SR21.2 million. The main objective of this style of care is to provide a surrogate mother for every six children. She lives with the children and provides them with all that a biological mother would provide — love, care and education.
The surrogate mother creates a real family environment, which will help the orphaned children grow up normally. In every family, there will be three orphaned boys and three orphaned girls living with their “mother”. It is hoped the youngsters will develop the sense of unity and brotherhood by playing together and helping each other.
The village will take care of the financial expenses for these orphaned children by creating a budget for each family. The mother pays expenses for the children under her care. The village also will take care of the children’s health care by providing them with proper medical insurance.
Prince Muqrin praised the generosity of the Saudi citizens and their love to do good deeds. The prince thanked all people who helped with the project through donations of money or labor. He urged Saudi citizens to continue their donations for the final stage of the project.
