RIYADH, 15 May 2007 — Prince Faisal ibn Abdul Majeed has donated SR3 million to an endowment of the Disabled Children’s Association (DCA) in Makkah in memory of Prince Abdul Majeed, who was the governor of the Makkah region.
Announcing the donation, DCA Chairman Prince Sultan ibn Salman said that Prince Faisal has made the donation in line with the vision and thinking of his late father, who was greatly interested in looking after the Kingdom’s handicapped children. He added that the association had made arrangements to purchase two buildings, which will be named after the late prince, at a cost of SR30 million, for endowment purposes.
“With this donation, we have SR10 million and we now need to collect another SR20 million from other philanthropists to finalize the purchase of the endowment complex,” Prince Sultan said in a statement to Arab News yesterday.
Explaining the yeoman services of Prince Abdul Majeed, Prince Sultan said that the former Makkah governor has been supportive of the Kingdom’s disabled children for several years.
He recalled that the late prince had been eager to form a group of philanthropists, who would work for the cause of disabled children, but he died before he could fulfill this mission.
Prince Sultan, who is also the chairman of the board of trustees of the Prince Salman Center for Disability Research, said that such an endowment in Makkah would ensure a regular income for the DCA.
“We will be able to help thousands of disabled children with the funds coming from this endowment and we would be able to rehabilitate hundreds of disabled children and help them join mainstream society,” he said, adding that the DCA needs an annual budget of SR11 million to maintain its two centers in Jeddah and Makkah.
The prince added that the DCA aims to create awareness in society on the causes of disability and means of prevention, thus help promote positive attitudes toward disabled people. It also supports scientific research that is needed to establish effective programs.
“The DCA’s success has been achieved entirely through the continuous support of generous people who have love for the disabled,” he added.
The Disabled Children’s Association was established in 1982 to provide comprehensive care to children with different disabilities with a range of free therapeutic and rehabilitation services. The association’s strategy is to establish a number of specialized centers in different regions of the Kingdom and to help disabled children’s families to deal with the problems they are facing.
According to DCA Secretary-General Awad Al-Ghamdi, more than 5,500 children benefit from the charity network, which has branches in Riyadh, Jeddah, Makkah, Madinah, Al-Jouf and Hail.
