JEDDAH, 8 June 2003 — All charity organizations and humanitarian institutes depend on donations by the private sector, particularly businesses. The relationship between these organizations and the businesses is based on trust and mutual benefit.
“The private sector plays an important role in the development and support of charity organizations and their activities, and because of their efforts there has been an increase in the number of institutions helping children with special needs,” said Dr. Ilham Harasani, general director of Prince Abdul Majeed Care Center for Gifted Children with Special Needs.
The charity organizations trust businessmen and women to continue supporting them and therefore enable them to continue their good causes; the business people trust the charity organizations and humanitarian institutes to use the money for the benefit of society and thus help in its development, which in turn will help the businesses themselves.
“There is a need for continuous support from the private sector because there is a shortage in meeting the demands of society especially with regards to children with special needs, which is why it’s important to establish joint plans between the business community and the charity organizations so that each will know what their obligations are,” Dr. Harasani said.
Lately, there has been an increase in attention by the public and private sector on providing better service and care to disabled people particularly children. That raises the issue of developing a better relationship between the charity organizations and institutions taking care of these children and the private sector. For that to happen there needs to be better communication and interaction between the two sides. The first step for that is to identify what is expected and wanted of them, and to work out how that can be achieved.
New projects such as the Prince Abdul Majeed Care Center for Gifted Children with Special Needs, which was founded less than a year ago, are in need of financial support in their first steps. But older charity organizations depend on the continued flow of financial support in order to expand their activities.
“In developed countries, a company or a businessman will usually cooperate and act as a sponsor of certain charities they are interested in so that they will grow and improve in their services,” said Dr. Harasani.
“Businesses usually support charities through donations, but they can also provide them with special discounts and supplies,” said Yasin Alireza, a top businessman. “What the charities need to do is provide more information about themselves, their activities, their achievements and their future plans,” he said.
“They can have seminars for businessmen and women informing them of their goals and their needs and print brochures about their activities so that they can establish trust and confidence in their projects.”
In the case of children with special needs, “how are they helping them? How are they training them to be productive members in society? And how are they raising awareness in society about treating these children?” asked Yasin Alireza.
“For charities serving children with special needs, the main thing for them to do is inform the community of the importance of caring for these children,” said Muhammad Alkhereiji, another businessman. “The lack of support for these charities is I think mostly due to ignorance, rather than unwillingness to help these children,” he said.
“They don’t know about the rehabilitation programs, the entertainment programs and the social services that can be provided for them,” he added.
