The cleaning project started six weeks ago.

“We have been going through a strict agenda for all the volunteers to follow so we can be on the same page. We went to The National Home Health Care Foundation to meet all the organizers participating in the initiative and pitched the idea,” said Maha Taher, YIG co-founder. “For the first week, volunteers took an intensive course on how to be helpful in this project. Then we took them to visit the damaged houses for them to see what they are going to deal within the next couple of months,” she added.

Training included pointers on home environmental issues that might lead to illness, such as poor air circulation or open standing water barrels that act as breeding grounds for mosquitoes.

“Young men from the Ministry of Health were conducting dengue-fever awareness for families, teaching them how stagnant water can cause the spread of diseases,” Taher told Arab News.

The First Charity Woman Organization provided YIG with a database of families who need help the most.  The volunteers choose to focus on 50 houses in Al-Nuzla Al-Yamaniyya.

“This is a poor district in south Jeddah. Some homes were in bad shape before the floods and some were affected and ruined even more by the floods,” said Taher, referring to the flash floods that struck the city early this year.

“We offer to renovate the houses inside and out to make them livable for those people who need this help the most. We will also give away cleaning supplies to help them upgrade their hygiene."

YIG has an agenda filled with activities where they will renovate two schools that were damaged by the floods, and another project to distribute foodstuffs and other supplies to needy people during Ramadan.