A meeting of directors of labor offices concluded a two-day meeting in Jeddah and explored a “Tawafuq” program related to the involvement of the disabled in serving society by creating suitable working conditions for them.
Minister of Labor Adel Fakeih expressed keenness to work out a strategy and find quick solutions to create jobs for the disabled.
Mervat Tashqandi, adviser to the minister of labor and supervisor of the Tawafuq program, said 600 million people around the world suffer from disability of one kind or other. Two-thirds of those have the ability to work. In Saudi Arabia, 45 percent of the disabled (aged between 20 and 59 years) are able to work, she said.
Earlier, the minister of labor ordered the formation of a board for Tawafuq. The minister should chair this board and the undersecretary for the Labor Ministry’s worker affairs should head the executive board.
Fakeih wants a jobs plan for disabled
