Samar Yahya

JEDDAH —  As part of World Social Work Day (WSWD) celebrations, Al Faisaliya Women Welfare Society represented by Princess Hussa Bint Khalid Center for Social Development held a one-day activity for volunteer work at Dallah Academy.

The event, held under the theme “Promoting communities comes by respecting dignity and rights of people”, included workshops, lectures, consultations and presentations of successful projects.

Lectures included a speech by Khairiah Raheemy, president of by Princess Hussa Bint Khalid Center for Social Development. It was followed by more lectures on citizenship and belonging, the role of social workers, the impact of social work in Islam, social work for families of kids with special needs in addition to presentations on many successful projects.

Raheemy explained: “Today’s event comes to bridge cooperation with philanthropy societies and more departments and aims to raise awareness of social, philanthropy and health specialists and guides and to exchange ideas and experiences for the sake of providing advanced services to students, families and patients.

During a workshop on the role of female social worker as volunteer managers, Dr. Souad Bin Afif, a member of Princess Hussa Bint Khalid Center, said: “ Volunteer work has its importance in the development of the community. In the past people did not know a lot about volunteerism, but at present we can see lots of female volunteers in the society. They have great ideas and know the problems of societies so they can help the poor, patients and in education and culture related tasks. They had a new experience when they helped at the time of Jeddah floods and they also help Umrah visitors in Haram during Ramadan. Government also stresses the role of volunteering and there are volunteer programs in universities. Plans are also to start programs in schools under the supervision of ministry of education”.

More workshops were presented by Najat Oqab “The way to Everest”, Nadia Hejazi “How to become a social worker”, Almas Al Hejin “The positive means to reach human rights” and Dr. Sabah Qassem “The boundaries between selfishness and wasting personal rights”.

Kholud Al-Hassany, human resources manager at Balsam, the specialized company in hospitals development of management programs and the main sponsor of the event said: “Our participation today comes as part of our social responsibility to boost our participation in the society.”

The societies and associations which participated in the event were Shaqaiq, Ektifaa, Saudi Food Bank, Zamzam, Saudi philanthropy society for AIDS patients, AlBir, 1st Female Society, Retired Society, Prince Fawaz Society, Human rights Makkah region and two volunteer groups.