JEDDAH, 10 October 2006 — The ALJ Community Services Programs in collaboration with the King Abdullah Charitable Foundation for Housing launched a program for providing employment to unemployed women and youths in Al-Nabah, near Yanbu, on Sunday. The program offers interest-free loans to beneficiaries of the charitable housing project who want to start small business projects.
ALJ Community Services chairman, Muhammad Abdul Latif Jameel, distributed loans to 25 women taking part in the women’s training project. The loans will be used to start small projects in their homes such as sewing, producing food items or perfumes. He also distributed loans to 19 youths who wish to start small projects such as cattle breeding, fish sales and fodder production. All are suitable for marketing in small agricultural towns without a great deal of competition. This is the first project for helping Saudi youths find employment in which ALJ and the King Abdullah Foundation have joined. In a function to mark the distribution, the ALJ chief said he would continue cooperating with the charitable foundation wherever it constructs charitable houses. Yusuf Al-Othaimin, director of the charitable foundation, was also present at the function, according to a statement from the ALJ Community Services Programs.