What many do not know is that the campaign has also benefited another segment of society — the suppliers.
The Princess Jawaher Center for Masha’el Al-Khair in the heart of Dammam serves as a beacon for aspiring Saudi women of all ages and backgrounds eager to earn a living.
The not-for-profit center offers enrolled women living quarters and a nursery and kindergarten for their young children, while they develop the skills they need to become secretaries, beauticians, caterers or seamstresses.
It is at the center’s sewing workroom where uniforms and school bags for the Saudi Aramco campaign have been produced for the past four years.
“The workroom project started producing school uniforms,” said Sheikha Binafeef, director of the center’s training and development office and the workroom, which employs 50 women.
“Then we expanded to producing linens, bags and uniforms for large companies. We get orders by the hundreds now.”
These orders help the center achieve its mission “to contribute to further developing the characters of Saudi women and preparing them so that they can depend on themselves and become productive members of society.”
It achieves this through its training courses, which have equipped almost 1,000 women with the skills they need since the center was launched four years ago, as well as through its employment office, The Princess Nawf Office, which connects graduates with interested employers. Many graduates open their own small businesses.
“What we’re really doing here is advancing the economic and social standards of women,” said Badriyah Al-Othman, center director.
“This project is unique in the Kingdom in that it has all the relevant functions for these women in one place. We teach them and help them get employed. Sometimes we employ them ourselves to teach others.”
The center also takes into account the fact women have other responsibilities, particularly child care, and provides morning and evening classes. The women work in the sewing workroom or as administrators during school hours so they can be home to look after their families.
Mothers can enroll younger children in the center’s nursery or kindergarten, which also accepts orphans from nearby orphanages free of charge.
The center also provides for women from needy families who take their training courses or work at the center.
“We adopt an integrated approach because we’re open to the public but are free for women from poor families,” said Binafeef.
“So we have women with university degrees in chemistry who want to learn how to start a business, studying side-by-side with women whose families rely completely on the charity of others. We don’t differentiate between them.”
That is what the center is about, helping all sorts of women. “Poverty isn’t shameful, ignorance is,” said Binafeef.
“What matters is that the women are eager to learn and work. This way, we’re preserving their dignity and actually giving them a way to improve their situation.”
The same is true for the women who work in the sewing workroom. “Ninety percent of the women who work here are the sole breadwinners of their families,” Al-Othman said.
“When she sits behind a sewing machine, she’s really supporting an entire family that depends on her from A to Z — including their electricity bills and school fees.”
Through campaigns like the School Kit for Needy Families, Saudi Aramco employees play their part as well. “By buying our products, Saudi Aramco is securing demand,” said Al-Othman. “Aramco is securing an income for these women and their families.”
The School Kit for Needy Families Campaign concluded recently, generating more than SR1.3 million in donations that paid for 15,400 school kits distributed to 65 charity centers.
