Jeddah police launched an investigation into the death of an 18-year-old orphan at the Jeddah Orphan Care Home’s orphanage.
The young man’s body, identified as Muhammad Abdullah, was in a state of decomposition at the time of its discovery, police said.
The death apparently occurred on the first day of Eid in the afternoon according to the coroner’s report. An official said the young man had his breakfast with the home’s director and supervisors at the home in the morning.
The victim had just arrived from a trip to Madinah along with other orphans and supervisors where they stayed for the last three days of Ramadan, said Ghazi Al-Ghamdi, director of the charitable foundation that manages the home.
The deceased was diabetic and he had a seizure when he came back from Madinah the night before Eid.
“He was taken to a hospital where he was supposed to stay, but he refused to stay and was released on his own responsibility,” said Al-Ghamdi.
After the breakfast on Eid morning, the home director asked Abdullah to stay in a friend’s room to have someone near if he suffered another seizure, “but he insisted on staying in his own room alone.”
The body was discovered by the Civil Defense who were called, along with the police, by the deceased’s friends and supervisors after the third Eid day had passed without hearing from him. The home’s residents told police they smelled a foul odor coming from Abdullah’s locked bedroom.
Social media subscribers started an Arabic hashtag to discuss this news showing their anger toward the orphanage and the people who were in charge of his care.
“If the Saudi governmental institutes are unable to care for the orphans, let the volunteers do what they do best,” said Asmaa Abodi, a Twitter subscriber. “We do not care about investigations and punishments. All we care about is finding a better life for them and we are here to serve them free of charge.”
Fouz Abdullah, another Twitter subscriber, said, “If a cat was missing, people would have searched everywhere to find it and not wait for the rotten smell to come out of the room to find out the child died days ago.”
Abdullah added: “As Muslims, we are told to give a special attention for orphans and not abandon them for days and nights without asking about them.”
Najla Al-Mutairi, a Twitter subscriber, tweeted, “Last week we saw a video of a man beating up an orphan and we never heard a follow up of what happened to him and today we see this and we all know what is going to happen then. When there is no hard punishment, people will do whatever they want without fearing the consequences.”
Said Twitter subscriber Ahmed Bajsair, “It is a disaster when the orphanage employees see this as a 9-to-5 job and not have mercy or compassion for those unprivileged children. They should have love and sympathy for the orphans who look up to them as the parents they never had and they should be worth this job because Allah rewards them for it.”
Teen’s death in orphan home raises questions
