JEDDAH: The Committee for the Care of Prisoners, Ex-convicts and Their Families on Saturday started distributing monthly food baskets worth SR500, said the head of the organization Muhammad Raffah.
“The basket contains various items of foodstuffs, including rice, flour, cooking oil and others,” he told Arab News.
He also said the committee assisted 48 families with SR2,000 each to pay their rent and SR500 to pay their electricity bills.
“The committee is sponsoring 600 families of prisoners currently serving their prison terms and those who have been released,” he added. Raffah said the committee — through its women’s section — has been recently focusing on training and educational programs for the families of prisoners and ex-convicts.
“The section, run by four ladies under the chairmanship of Aliyah Fawzi Afif, was able to provide 15 daughters of prisoners with special training to qualify them to become nurses and other positions in the health sector,” he said.
He added that the training was provided to them in collaboration with the Department of Health Affairs of Makkah province.
Raffah also said agreements were signed with a number of educational and training organizations to hold training sessions for women prisoners in Jeddah’s Briman Prison in addition to supplying them with computers to learn basic computing skills.
He said the committee signed an agreement with a sewing center for women to teach sewing and stitching to 25 inmates.
The chairman said the committee was able to obtain tuition waivers at Jeddah’s King Abdulaziz University for 11 sons and daughters of inmates.
“Within its consummate care for needy prisoners and ex-convicts, the committee provides them with financial aid and clothing,” he said.
