“These issues need intensive and joint efforts to resolve,” he said. “People should back up the efforts of this non-government organization. The courts in Madinah are among our supporters.”

Al-Aoufi recounted an incident from last week when the head of the Madinah court, Fahd Al-Mihaimeed, helped the society by ensuring medical and social care to four orphans aged between six months and four years who lost both parents in a car accident.

“The society was recently able to resolve about 70 cases of family violence,” he said.  “We do not usually announce the details of these cases, which are on the rise for many reasons, including family disintegration, drugs and weak religious influence.”

Al-Aoufi called for spreading awareness among families against the hazards of drugs and asked schools, the media and mosques to preach against drug abuse.

He said the majority of the cases which come to the society are those related to domestic violence, representing about 29 percent of all NSHR cases.

Cases of administrative abuse makes up 22 percent of all cases, followed by cases pertaining to personal matters and labor disputes (10 percent apiece) and prisoner abuse, at 7.5 percent.

He recalled that the society recently intervened to end a case of a young girl in her first intermediate year whose father tortured her by physical beating and shaving off her eyebrows because she failed an exam.