RIYADH, 30 July 2007 — Minister of Social Affairs Abdul Mohsen Al-Akkas has approved a decision to shut down a Dammam-based home for unmarried young orphan women run by the Women’s Charitable Society for Social Services.
“The minister endorsed the recommendation of a committee that studied issues surrounding the home. The committee recommended closure because the Women’s Charitable Society for Social Services had found it impossible to continue with its current staff,” the Saudi Press Agency quoted Motleq Al-Hantoush, acting undersecretary for social development at the Ministry of Social Affairs, as saying yesterday.
Al-Hantoush said the facility has been evacuated and inmates have been shifted to another building owned by the ministry in the region. He added that the orphans could not be allowed to continue in the old building as it was unfit to live in.
In April a woman at the home complained to police that she had been beaten up and abused by workers at the house.
