He was speaking at the opening of an art and entertainment exhibition held by the Society of Disabled Children at the King Abdullah Center on Wednesday.
He noted that there were very few buildings and utilities that could be easily accessed by the disabled and reiterated that the municipality would always support the programs and activities of this particular group.
“We have completed refurbishing all the Jeddah municipality’s buildings and utilities, as well as the branch municipalities, so they can be easily accessed by the disabled,” he said.
“Building licenses granted by the municipality will make it imperative for designers and constructors to ensure all buildings are easily accessible to the disabled.”
Fakieh said the municipality had worked in coordination with disabled volunteers to identify suitable locations in Jeddah.
“We have reached agreements with the owners of these buildings to modify them in order to be able to receive disabled people,” he said.
Fakieh toured the exhibition and listened to briefings from Misan Attieh, who is in charge of the society’s activities and events, about the artworks made by disabled children.
On Tuesday, the mayor, in his capacity as the chairman of the Savola Group, honored the first batch of participants in a training and employment program for the disabled. The participants were trained at the Savola Center for Empowering Persons with Disabilities. The center selected 100 disabled men and women and provided them with three months of extensive training programs before employing them in various sectors of the group.
International CSR consultant Leo Kooyman, who serves as an adviser to the center, observed that the Savola program complied with international standards in terms of planning, design, and implementation.
He said the program was much more about just providing jobs to people with disabilities.
“It generates a new type of thinking in the community, which clearly demonstrates that disability is not an obstacle but an opportunity to develop and demonstrate capabilities.”
The graduation ceremony was attended by a number of senior officials from the government and private sectors, senior executives of Savola and representatives of specialized training institutions.
Faten Al-Yafi, executive director of Savola’s corporate social responsibility program, gave an overview of the training program.
— With input from
Shaheen Nazar
