Director General of the ministry’s Women’s Social Supervision Office in Riyadh Latifa bint Abu Nayyan said the cultural events and lectures being organized by the ministry on the day aim to increase public awareness, particularly of the families of the disabled, about the social, psychological, economic and cultural problems faced by the people with special needs.

“The women’s office has set up a committee to organize various events on the day and has sent invitations to all women’s centers and charity societies to attend the events. The events include a review of the ministry’s rehabilitation for the disabled, video presentations and lectures on the role of a disabled in his or her family in addition to various methods of physical therapy for the disabled,” Latifa said in a statement.

The events on the day are basically aimed at the integration of the disabled in the society apart from shedding light on their achievements and the need for strengthening the concept of social commitment to the disabled, she said.

No accurate statistics on the disabled in the Saudi society is available. However, it is roughly estimated that eight percent of the population is victims of some sort of disability. The government introduced new regulations to protect the disabled in 2000. It allocates a minimum of SR20,000 to each disabled citizen annually. Besides, there are a number of charity organizations that help disabled people to educate, learn trades and get employed.

The Eye Society for the support and rehabilitation of persons with vision impairment organized a function at Jeddah corniche with the participation of 45 children and their families on Thursday.

The society’s media consultant Ahmad Abu Hassan said the event aimed at bringing out and developing the latent talents of the children with visual impairment with the ultimate goal of achieving their integration with the social mainstream.