It is an honor to have charitable institutions in the Kingdom that have been founded and are directed by Saudi women. Although these women come from different cultural, educational and social levels, they have promoted charitable and volunteer work that is very much appreciated. The institutions which they represent serve a large group of unfortunate persons — orphans, the disabled and the poor. Most of the charities work without sufficient financial support from businessmen or wealthy members of the community. This lack of support is not the same all over the Kingdom; it is, however, directly related to the level of awareness and community perceptions of the work done by the charitable institutions. Support for charity is also linked to the type of people being helped.
For instance, more support is given to groups that help the disabled and orphans than to groups that do not specify precisely what type of people they help but rather help those in financial distress. New strategies need to be employed to attract donors interested in charity to groups that focus on women and the family.
For example, the Al-Nahda Philanthropic Society for Women produced a simple booklet about the rights of Muslim women; it was based on religion rather than tradition and the booklet was sold to a number of women eager to learn about their rights. The idea raised a small amount of money to support some of the institutions’ humanitarian projects. Although the organization aims to enlighten and educate women for free, it must also employ ideas derived from different projects it presents to the community.
There are a number of unrecognized institutions in spite of their well-established histories. Their services might not reach all needy people even though we regularly hear of large donations given annually by the community.
Some poor families live in misery for long periods of time, helped silently by compassionate people. When our daily newspapers tackle these topics, however, the charitable institutions start taking care of these families, giving them what they need.
The problem here is that voluntary social work will not progress in Islamic countries as long as charitable institutions do not receive sufficient financial and humanitarian support from the wealthy. Tragic and miserable cases will not disappear from our country unless good relations and determined goals are set between charitable institutions and the fund for eradicating poverty. Our status will not improve without emphasizing the importance of voluntary work. We should aspire to more than financial gain if we are keen on eliminating poverty and helping our unfortunate fellow human beings.
