A 12-year-old male orphan from outside the Kingdom got used to asking people for money on the streets of Jeddah. His begging from car drivers at the traffic lights started as early when he was eight years old, depriving him of finishing elementary school education.

Although Rashad M.’s difficult life made him illiterate, he was still able to develop a hobby for writing poetry. He discovered the talent to play with words and make them into beautiful poems while he stayed at the child beggars and orphans house that belongs to Al-Bir Society in Jeddah.

Rashad’s friends, teachers and supervisors at the orphanage believe he has remarkable talents and all think of him as a unique model for others to emulate.

His poems will be the first words guests of the orphanage hear. He makes sure to make all guests feel unique as his warm greetings are personalized. He arranges on the spot poems in the name of visitors.

The sad part of his story began as Rashad’s parents died in a tragic fire that also left his older brother wounded. Rashad, now responsible for four sisters, began his journey to try to make a living and provide for the family. He told Arab News he had attempted to enter Saudi Arabia so he can make money and send it to his sisters back home.

Rashad continues his story and says he started begging as soon as he arrived Jeddah.

“Then I started selling chewing gum and towels at traffic lights,” he remembers, “and I used to wire the money every period to my sisters which came down to SR70 per day,” Rashad added.

But then came the winds of change. The security forces caught Rashad and sent him to the orphanage where he met his peers. “I started reliving my lost childhood there focusing on finding the talents within me and developing them,” he said. He believes his talents in singing, writing poems, and learning Qur’an by heart will help him have a better life that he hopes to start in his homeland soon. He hopes to go back home soon to live with his sisters and help provide a living for them, although he feels sad to leave his friends at the orphanage.

Waleed Bahamdan, secretary general of Albir Society, stressed the society’s interest in developing the skills of the children in the society’s orphan houses, particularly the child beggars orphanages, “The programs and activities of the society’s houses transform sons to a new phase in their lives with the help and support of social and psychiatric professionals,” Bahamdan said pointing out that Al-Bir provides comprehensive care services to the children as well as involving them in different activities and programs to develop their skills.

These activities include Qur’an teaching workshops, sports as well as cultural, entertainment and training activities. The society hosts religious scholars and preachers to educate them and as well as teaching girls the art of sewing and embroidery skills.

He added that the center, the first of its kind to house child beggars in the Kingdom, aims to decrease the phenomenon of begging by rehabilitating children and help them have a better life, with the help of the security forces.