JEDDAH, 8 January 2006 — Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah has donated SR2 billion for housing projects to provide decent housing for the Kingdom’s poor and needy. According to a report in Asharq Al-Awsat, this was the largest single donation to a charity in the Kingdom’s history.
Yousuf Al-Othaimeen, secretary-general of the King Abdullah Charitable Housing Foundation, said the king had given land in Madinah worth SR2 billion to the foundation. He estimated the total area of the land at five million square meters. It is located between the Prophet’s Mosque and the Madinah airport. “This land will be administered as a source of income for the foundation’s charitable projects,” Al-Othaimeen told the Arabic daily. “Part of the land will be sold while the rest will be used for development projects,” he said.
Al-Othaimeen said King Abdullah earlier gave 10,000 square meters of land in Riyadh for the foundation’s permanent headquarters. “King Abdullah bought the land for SR15 million specifically for that purpose,” he said.
The foundation, which was established three years ago, has already constructed a large number of low-cost housing projects for the poor in various parts of the country. The housing units are provided along with other facilities including heath care and education.
Al-Othaimeen said the foundation intended to establish 7,000 housing units in different parts of the Kingdom which would benefit some 50,000 citizens.
King Abdullah ordered a national strategy to fight poverty in the country after visiting a Riyadh slum three years ago when he was crown prince. He set aside SR2 billion from the budget surplus for a low-cost housing scheme.
