“I read about the cleaning event through Facebook and I broadcasted the news at the college by posting an ad to gather volunteers,” said Suhaib Basyouni, a pharmacy student and head of community service program at Batterjee Medical College (BMC), which in the end had the biggest army of volunteers on ground.

“I thought of engaging my fellow students in the event so they could learn from the experience from the cleaning, and it is not the job of street cleaners, but our job too, to keep the city we live in clean,” he said, adding almost 150 volunteers joined up from my college.

The event that caught the eye and the imagination of the youth was campaigned and organized by a social welfare group — namely the Young Initiative Group (YIG), who coordinated their “Clean Jeddah” activity with the Jeddah municipality and the Saudi Environmental Society.

The event not only struck a chord in the Jeddah youth’s hearts and minds about their civic duty, but also triggered in these volunteers a sense of responsibility and they, in turn, are beginning to spread awareness among local communities about the importance of keeping their area clean, and thus aiming to have a cleaner and healthier environment.

“Our intention is to involve the community in the actual cleaning activity so they have a personal experience of how easy it is to pick up rubbish from the streets and how good it feels to live in cleaner neighborhoods,” said Maha Taher, co-founder of YIG, a charity group that has more than 400 young volunteers from different nationalities living in Jeddah.

“We target unrestricted locations like major streets, beach neighborhoods and public gardens and playgrounds because those are the places that are owned by the public and need special attention,” she added.

That YIG succeeded in involving the youth to a great extent could be gauged by the enthusiastic response by some of the 400 volunteers who had turned up to clean Jeddah’s downtown and historical place to save their culture.

“It was my first time to Al-Balad and I wanted to contribute in giving back to the society,” said Mona Abdulmajeed, a high school student. “The experience itself was very interesting because I got to learn more about our cultural buildings in addition to helping in cleaning,” she said.

The experience was educational while physically challenging said Mostafa Tawfik, a college student. “When I heard about the cleaning of Al-Balad I decided to join because I wanted to see more of the area. I enjoyed seeing other places than the Souk and Naseef’s House,” he said. “It was very dirty and dusty and I was very tired but it was all worth it,” he added.

Jeddah Mayor Hani Abu Ras too is enthusiastic. “Volunteers will visit all 415 archaeological buildings in downtown Jeddah and clean the premises from top to bottom every Thursday until the historical districts are fully clean,” he said at the launch of the cleaning drive, adding, “This is just the initial stage of cleaning the whole of Jeddah.”

“This drive, which helps boost environmental awareness among the Jeddah public, will be followed by many such operations until the city achieves a level of cleanliness that pleases residents,” he added.

YIG, apart from the cleaning drives, has teams helping in teaching the orphans; medical cases; the innovators who help in safe proofing old homes; and finally, a group of volunteers providing impoverished families with essential home appliances.

The volunteers in the cleaning campaign first tackled the Jeddah’s Corniche on Oct. 25 when 150 young volunteers bent their backs and soiled their hands in clearing trash and seaweed from the area. After two hours of nonstop work they left the location spick and span.

“We were amazed by the number of people who showed up willingly to engage themselves in the cleaning process even if it meant picking up trash by their own hands,” Taher said. “I’m very optimistic about this campaign knowing that the young generation are aware of how important hygiene is,” she added.

Then the next week the band of 400 volunteers marched into the Al-Balad area with renewed vigor.

Mohammad Al-Bakri, YIG member and leader of the male section, said: “The municipality and the Saudi environmental society are to be thanked for supporting us along the way. But we need to thank the volunteers for their enthusiastic participation.”

The cleaning campaign at the historical area was summed up by YIG member Ali Al-Banawi, who said: “Our history is our identity and we intend to preserve it in every possible way, starting with our cultural buildings.”

He added: “As a volunteer group we joined an effort to clean one of the historical buildings with the goal of establishing an emotional connection between the volunteers and the historical area, and YIG intends to keep visiting the historical places in Jeddah once a week to clean the area, spread awareness and harvest a culture of caring for the old city and the environment.”
 
For more information about the

Young Initiative Group visit:

http://www.y-i-g.org/