Nulabi Al-Nida (We answer the call) initiative sponsored by Prince Turki bin Talal bin Abdul Aziz, councilor to the board of trustees in the Arab Open University, is a charitable effort that provides help to people regardless of political affiliations.

Prince Turki told Arab News in an exclusive interview that the initiative is and answer to the call of “wronged people,” the needy and those in stricken areas.

He said that the initiative fulfills a humanitarian need and religious obligations.

From this principle, sons of the Arabian Peninsula performed the initiative to help their brothers as they always have, said the prince.

The initiative is wanted to provide aid in a more organized ways. Organizers formed professional teams of full-time workers and volunteers. They believed that delivering aid in certain mechanisms would better serve the project’s goal. The goal is to reach people wherever they are no matter what their need or situation, said Prince Turki.

He said Saudi responses to emergencies are faster and transparent, he said.

“We associate with trustworthy partners on the field,” he said. “So whoever wants to donate or contribute to our initiative can rest assure that everything is documented. The fast response and transparency are direct reasons for our success. If we work slowly or don’t have the trust worthy partner on the field, our work would go in vain.”

The initiative responses extend to numerous forms of help. Starting with providing shelter and food to families hit natural disasters to reconciliations between families disputing in courts. Nulabi Al-Nida helps patients in remote areas to get help from hospitals in cities.

The initiative efforts are provided abroad as it provided help to Gaza during the 2009 Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It also provided help to Syrian refugees in the ongoing conflicts in Syria.

The prince said that the country has always encouraged donations but because of incidents happened in the past 10 years, the government wanted to ration the donations so they don’t get in the wrong hands.

Prince Turki said this made private sector feel more confortable to contribute in charity activities. Companies now can see their contributions fill in organized efforts.

But he said that there is still a need to find a system that allows creating civil society institutions.

“Once this is achieved, we will see tens of initiatives coming from private sector in many forms,” said Prince Turki.

On whether the private sector initiatives are integrating with the work of Ministry of Social Affairs, the prince said that there two options; to wait for bureaucracy until help gets to needy people or to take the initiative to reorganize the system to the extend allowed even if there is no clear regulation.