The Ministry of Social Affairs will build 450 new villas in densely populated areas in big cities and towns over the next three years for the accommodation of more than 9,300 orphans at the cost of more than SR 900 million, local daily Okaz reported yesterday. It was quoting the undersecretary of the ministry. “The ministry is planning to make a big shift in the sponsoring of orphans and amalgamating them in the society,” Abdullah Al-Yousef said. The ministry is currently sponsoring 9,326 male and female orphans in a number of cities and towns in the Kingdom providing them with accommodation and sustenance.
“Each villa will cost about SR 2 million and will also cost about the same for its maintenance and upkeep,” he said, adding that each villa would accommodate between 18 and 20 orphans.
Al-Yousef said the villas would be scattered in the residential areas so as to separate them from each other. “The idea is to merge the orphans with the society. The orphans will be able to play with their equals in the residential district, pray in the mosque, and go to the shopping centers without being branded as orphan,” he said.
The undersecretary said the ministry had already started to rent and furnish villas in a number of cities including Riyadh, Jeddah and Makkah as a prelude to its project. “We are planning to build our own villas, which will be a substitute to the traditional accommodation of orphans. Each villa will have a supervisor who will act as a father to the orphans in addition to six employees from the ministry, including social workers and specialists,” he said. He said living in luxurious villas in the middle of the densely populated areas would give the orphans a sense of belonging to the society and would help build their self-confidence.
Govt to build villas for orphans
