The Jeddah-based Al-Birr Society issued SR135,000 in loans to 17 Saudi families last month as part of a program for productive families.

The society has received nine new applications from families who want to benefit from the program. The social research division at the society will review these applications.

In an interview with Arab News, Walid Ba-Hamadan, secretary general of the society, said that the program was highly successful and there were many success stories of people in need who have since become productive and self-sufficient.

Once approved, the beneficiaries, who are mostly women, receive training and help. They submit proposals for projects to the society, which conducts feasibility studies on the prospects of success for the projects.

The beneficiaries are then given job opportunities and receive between SR500 and SR1,000 each month depending on their progress and productivity.

“We try hard to make these women increase their income through micro-projects. For this, we provide them with the financial services they need for their projects,” he said.

“We also seek to secure loans to the women who have no collateral, which makes them illegible to obtain loans from commercial banks or other lenders,” he added.

It is the purpose of the society, he said, to make these women self-sufficient and independent of others. “They mostly come from limited-income families and we try to help them by enabling them to produce products that they can make themselves, like handicrafts, local accessories, weaving palm tree leaves into baskets and other objects, oriental perfumes, and antiques. We provide them with training, sometimes in the office, and sometimes in the field,” he said.

“The productive family program approved financing and training for various types of projects. 66 percent of the projects were commercial, while industrial projects made up 28 percent of the total, and 4 percent were service projects,” he added.

Umm Abdullah, who lives in Ar Ruwais neighborhood in Jeddah, told Arab News that she was deeply grateful to the society.“My husband was killed in a car accident three years ago, leaving me with two boys. I do not have enough education and it was difficult for me to find a suitable job. However, one day, someone knocked at my door. He introduced himself as a representative of the society. A few days later, they loaned me SR10,000, and I started working from home. I love oriental perfumes, and that is what I am now making. I pay the money back at a rate of SR500 a month. However, one year later, they told me they wrote off half of the amount.”