The Boy Scouts have been offering services to Haj and Umrah pilgrims with the support of the government since many years.

There are many volunteer groups that specialize in humanitarian services especially in Ramadan.

Their activities could be observed in crowded mosques apart from the supply of free meals to worshippers for fast breaking.

The Directorate of Civil Defense has regular programs to train youths for volunteer services.

The Red Crescent also organizes training programs in the Grand Mosque in Ramadan every year. Students of medical establishments in various Saudi cities participate in those programs that focus on the method of first aid service to pilgrims and visitors.

A participant in the program told Arab News that he felt proud of serving pilgrims coming from different corners of the world and looked forward to participate in the coming years as well.

It is not a rare sight to see male members of a family distributing meals in the evening rush at traffic lights in Jeddah.

Arab News met Abu Khaled and his sons Khaled and Abdullah who were standing at a signal in Jeddah shortly before the sunset on Friday.

Understanding the worry of drivers to get home to break their fast, the father and sons shove packets of fruits and water in to the hands of drivers telling them not to worry or hurry.

Abu Khaled said he just wanted to see that people did not miss their meals just because they were delayed at signal points.

He said he did not expect any material returns for his voluntary acts except the blessings of Allah.

Similar distribution of meals was observed at many other signals in the city. While some were individual efforts most of them were organized by voluntary organizations.

Volunteers also undertook cleaning of mosques.

One common feature of the volunteers was that they did not want publicity for their acts and also they did not like to be photographed. That was because they did not want any egoistic gains to spoil the purity of their service aimed at Allah’s pleasure.