JEDDAH: ARAB NEWS
Wednesday 5 December 2012
The Al-Birr Charity Society in Jeddah adopted a total of 537 children who were previously street beggars and sent them to a shelter this year.
Most of the children found begging in Jeddah are foreigners. They are found in streets, public squares, mosque courtyards and souks.
The society organized a number of cultural, social and sports programs with the aim of rehabilitating the children to lead normal lives.
The children are eventually sent to their respective countries or handed over to their relatives in the Kingdom.
“The society not only provides the begging children a shelter but strives to rehabilitate them besides teaching them the Holy Qur’an. It also encourages them to abandon begging and engage in honorable jobs,” Secretary General of the society Waleed Bahamdan said.
City of Jeddah
“The society also strives to collaborate with security authorities to keep the children in the shelter until the formalities of their parents’ deportation are completed,” he said.
In the case of parents who are working in the Kingdom, the society keeps them until their documents are regularized.
The society also prepares a record of each child and keeps any money or other possessions they have in their care. The children are also provided with clothes, a medical check up and treatment if required. This was reported by Al-Watan daily.
The practice of forcing children to beg and hawk goods seemingly continues unabated in the Kingdom despite efforts by authorities to put an end to it.
read more here:
http://www.arabnews.com/charity-society-adopts-537-begging-children-jeddah
Categories: Arab World, Asia, Saudi Arabia
The full force of Saudi law should be used against those who force children to beg.
That there should be any poor people or beggars in such a wealthy place as Jeddah, or Saudi at all surprises and concerns me. They surely have the resources to care for their own at the very least; and isn’t caring for less fortunate people one of the obligations in Islam? Shameful!
Unfortunately these beggars in Saudi Arabia are usually part of criminal gangs, importing children from Yemen and other countries to use them as beggars. Their masters probably drive Mercedes.
If that is really the case that is even more pitiful, and it needs to be seriously dealt with; bearing in mind that Saudi manages to deal with all sorts of relative trivialities, I’m sure that they can get this matter under control. How do these people manage to get into the country anyway, when even I would have difficulty?