She always tries to come up with new ideas to make the world a better place. In 2009, she started selling handmade T-shirts in her garage at low prices to help the needy.

Idriss wanted to take a bigger step by establishing a non-profit organization called !Y!. Her first event was called “Hoops for Hope.”

It was a basketball tournament that took place in the American International School of Jeddah last month.

Idriss told Arab news about her charity activities.

Basketball is a sport that’s gaining more and more popularity in Saudi Arabia. It’s more than just a sport, it comes with a lifestyle, a culture, it has its music, and its clothing... it’s also a sport from the streets which anyone can play and use to express themselves.

I am donating to The Fatima Center in Malawi. I chose this organization because the founder lives here in Jeddah. So, I know exactly where the money is going and what it is being used for. I’m planning to visit Malawi to see how the project is going.

Difficulties were many, mostly concerning sponsors as you can imagine. They did not take it seriously; they would take weeks, months to reply and their excuses used to be “sorry our budget is closed for this year.”

I often got the feeling that they really liked the idea, but they did not trust me enough to take the risk of sponsoring my event. I couldn’t say I was surprised.

People are not very encouraging at all over here specially when you’re a 16-year-old Saudi girl.

The organization in general wasn’t as easy as I thought it would be, especially with school at the same time. When I faced problems, I would remember that I had about eight sponsors as well as 800 people counting on me.

Nike and MTV Arabia were my first sponsors. They were also the most encouraging. I was planning to have three sponsors only: MTV, Nike and Gatorade. MTV for excitement and fun, Nike for encouraging young talent and Gatorade because they are NBA’s sponsors. I wanted to make the players feel confident as if they were NBA players.

I am very proud and thankful to say that i have raised around SR70,000. We sold all 1,000 tickets when we were only expecting 800 people to turn up. Idriss believes that !Y! organization is working because children her age just want a chance to do something great and support a good cause even by just watching a game.

All the 1,000 people who came were heroes, they might not have known that but every single person who paid to enter the doors has saved at least two lives. It costs one dollar to cure a severely ill person in Africa. That’s SR3.75, the equivalent of a chocolate bar. Imagine while praying everyday that someone, somewhere in the world would chose your help over a chocolate bar!