- RIYADH: The Saudi Charitable Society for the Welfare of Saudi Families Abroad (Awasir) provides excellent services to maintain the dignity of needy Saudi families abroad.
Its services include providing material, moral, health, educational, and social help to these families. This is being done through confirming the intimate relations that have been disconnected for various reasons — between the families and their home country. It also attempts to return these families back home. Awasir also plays an educational role to reduce the phenomenon of disconnected families abroad by maintaining communication with related bodies.
Additionally, Awasir enlightens citizens of the advantages of marriage from inside Saudi Arabia and the legality of marriage outside the country. It also takes care of maintaining cooperation with nongovernmental civil society organizations to spread education, charity work, finding job opportunities for the returnee families in private and public sectors, and helping and empowering these families to realize social integration. Awasir seeks to enlist some 1,000 members in addition to honorary members. To realize its objective, Awasir publishes studies and cooperates with the media to enlighten people of this phenomenon.
The number of Saudi citizens abroad under the umbrella of Awasir is about 3,091 citizens, accounting for some 944 families spread in 26 different countries. It offers them various kinds of support and welfare. Awasir is deeply rooted in the teaching of Islamic law that urges mercy, solidarity, and cooperation.
In its most recent report, the society highlighted its key achievements, where families supported by Awasir receive different kinds of material, moral, health care, and educational services. It also plays a role in rehabilitating families that result from a marriage of a Saudi citizen to a non-Saudi abroad. Those who seek to return to the country are helped after coordination with related bodies.
According to the report, Awasir helped a number of families and individual get identification cards and renewed passports. It also helps facilitate communication between families living abroad and their relatives inside the country. In addition to that, consultations are offered through the society’s website. The report refers to some 45 empirical research studies that focused on the negative impact of marrying non-Saudis, spinsterhood, divorce, raising children and domestic violence.



