JEDDAH, 18 January 2007 — Nora Al-Asheikh, director of the women’s department at the Ministry of Social Affairs in the Makkah Region, said yesterday that she was holding meetings since the beginning of this week to discuss activities for the program titled “Together to Love Our Country”.

“The aim of this program is to get rid of the destructive mentalities and promote the love of the country, especially among the youth,” Al-Asheikh told Arab News.

Her preparations for the program came after she was nominated to be the president of the women’s wing in the Social Development Committee of Makkah Region by Saleh Al-Turki, chair of the committee in the region.

The brainstorming meetings started on Saturday and lasted three days. They recommended ideas and events that can take place as part of this program. The first day was an encounter with charitable societies, shelter homes and social development centers. The meeting on Sunday was with the deans of colleges and universities while the third day was with the girls’ education directorates.

Al-Asheikh said the results were encouraging. Young women will come up with ideas for symposiums that they will hold themselves and invite their mothers and the older generation to attend. “In addition, there will be drawing and painting competitions,” she said.

People in different educational institutions and shopping centers will be able to sign on certificates affirming their love for their country. All those signatures will be collected, translated in all world languages and printed on a huge certificate that will be launched at Prince Abdullah Al-Faisal area in south Jeddah. During the same event, the mothers of the martyrs killed in terrorist attacks will be honored. “We decided to propose this huge certificate of signatures to enter the Guinness Book of Records as the biggest of its kind,” she said.

The program will be inaugurated at the beginning of the second school semester to give space for students who will soon be sitting their mid-year examinations. The committee did not yet set the duration of this program.