JEDDAH: Private individual donations are pouring in providing aid to the recent Jeddah floods victims, far outpacing any corporate philanthropy.
Volunteers at the Al-Harithy Exhibitions Center in Jeddah told Arab News on Saturday that 90 percent of the donations have come from private citizens.
What about the 10 percent of goodwill coming from private enterprise?
“We’ve had (contributions) from Savola Group, which basically owns Panda supermarkets chain, Procter & Gamble and Albaik Food Systems Company,” said Yasir Asaad, an organizer from the Muatana volunteer group. Muatana does not accept money, he added.
Local businesses have come through with food and drink for the volunteers themselves, including Teayana Restaurant and Al-Rabea Tea Company.
Activists say an estimated 80,000 boxes of food have been distributed to flood victims through the center of operations for volunteers. The estimated value of each box was put at SR200. Ahmed Oraif, head of volunteer operations at the center, said that the government was actually surprised at the number of volunteers.
“They expected about 500 and the number exceeded 8,000,” he said. “Most of them have been young people.”
A record on the number of volunteers working out of the center alone is estimated around 700 volunteers, both men and women, and around 1,500 to 2,000 (mostly men) in the field delivering aid.
Volunteer activities from the exhibition center are scheduled to end on Wednesday. It is unclear if another center will be established at another location.
Lina Al-Fadl, the director of operations at the center, said that they are a channel of support to the flood victims.
“We are trying our best to cover all areas and there are still some that have not been covered yet,” she said.
Al-Fadl also said that the Civil Defense has asked for their help in terms of informing officials of the their observations of conditions in the neighborhoods they visit.
