“We aim to engage locals to get them involved in the cleaning process and to give them a taste of how hard it is for street cleaners to clean up after them,” said Maha Taher, cofounder of the Young Initiative group (YIG). “This campaign is being carried out in both old and new neighborhoods to increase cleanliness, and build public gardens and safe playgrounds for children to play in,” she added.
YIG is composed of over 400 young volunteers. The campaign — titled “I’ll clean my Jeddah one step at a time” — was launched on Oct. 25 when 150 members of the group cleaned Jeddah’s corniche of trash and seaweed for two hours.
A week later, 400 YIG volunteers headed to Jeddah’s historical district in the downtown Balad area to clean streets and buildings. The group aims to revisit the downtown area every Thursday for the next three to five months. Organizers aim to clean some 415 buildings in the area.
“Thursday is when we can all get our hands dirty and work together back to back, hand in hand,” said Taher. “We choose locations that are of benefit to society and the city according to priority … we want to keep our city dirt-free and healthy for citizens and visitors to enjoy,” she added.
“We want to create a safe place for kids to play — no broken glass, no needles, no unhealthy water puddles but a green, clean area for kids to play soccer and spend time,” said Taher.
The group has also been planning vegetation and trees, kindly donated by Jeddah municipality, which also provided the group with shovels, water and other apparatus. “We want to improve the historical district because UNESCO wants to make this a World Heritage site. The pressure is on us to make this place spotless and presentable before 2011 which is the deadline for us,” said Majda Abu Ras, deputy executive manager of the Saudi Environmental Society. “Every week we’ll choose a new location to clean — this includes gardens, mosques, buildings and streets,” she added.
“I myself am a volunteer and I’m going to join them in every cleaning event … to transform the old historical place into a shiny new and clean historical place which locals and tourists can visit and enjoy,” said Abu Ras.
For further information about the campaign visit YIG’s website www.y-i-g.org
