Labor minister’s family takes time out to serve pilgrims

The majority of Makkah’s families are renowned for serving pilgrims.
The family of Labor Minister and Acting Health Minister Adel Fakeih, a native of Makkah, took to the field to help pilgrims during the holy rituals in a show of tradition and hospitality.
Members took care of lost children and attended to sickly pilgrims.
Local media reporters met the minister by chance when he was at the lost children center, where he was found handing over a lost child to guides.
The center, chaired by Maha Fitaihi, his wife, cares for lost children until they are returned to their parents.
Dana, his daughter, also helped in the operation.
Fakeih said he is proud to serve the guests of God.
“I am absolutely honored to take on this task, entrusted to me by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah. My wife already preceded me in the volunteer field to serve pilgrims four years ago. This is my first year serving in the Haj season,” he said.
“A Prophetic Hadith said credit should be given to those who serve guests and neighbors. Reward is multiplied for serving pilgrims. I can only hope my family will be blessed after engaging in such deeds,” he added.
Maha Fitaihi, who heads the Haj female guides and is the chairwoman of the center to guide lost children during Haj rituals, says the center received 63 children of which 56 were handed to their parents. The remaining seven children are still at the center.
“It has been five years since the center was established and started operating. During its first year of work, the center managed to return 87 lost children to their parents, and during its second and third years 68 and 56 children were restored to their parents respectively. In the fourth year, the center received the less number of lost children with 24,” said Fitaihi.
She confirmed that because of the nature of their work as female guides for lost children they cannot leave the center and go down to the holy sites until after the guides handed over all the children staying in the center to their families.
“Fifteen female guides worked at the center in its first year of establishment, 17 in the second year, and 16 during the third and fourth year,” she said. But this year, she added, 21 female guides worked at the center in shifts.
She said the first year was the most difficult test for the center’s success because nobody knew the center existed. “But we were determined to succeed. All children at the center are treated with utmost family affection and love until they are handed to their parents,” she added.
Fitaihi said she hoped the center is linked by one single phone number with the security and health authorities so that female guides can coordinate with these bodies to hand the children to their families, or in case they needed medical care.
“We strongly hope that the quality of services offered at the center improves next year, mainly the air-conditioning installations in view of the rising high temperatures,” she pointed out.
She said it is an honor for both the acting health minister and herself to step down to the field and serve the pilgrims as best as they both could. “Adel Faqeih has never had the time to rest properly because his main concern is to serve his country, and to be at the very good trust of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques who entrusted him with the responsibility of being the minister of both labor and health.”
Such responsibilities, she explained are considered as an honor to serve, and not a title and prestigious position. “This service is a great honor to us, to serve the guests of Allah,” she added.