Saudi Arabia: Group Aims to Provide Skills and Employ Women in Need

JEDDAH — A local nongovernmental organization has announced a new drive to help women in need by providing them with job skills and creating a company to prepare meals for educational institutions for girls and women.

Bodour Al-Butaini, executive director of the 10-year-old Abshir organization, said that her group’s new initiatives aim to recruit and train widows, divorcees and low-income women in the northern provinces of Tabuk and Al-Jouf.

“We train them in skills such as plumbing and preparing meals,” she said. “We work in four colleges of education for girls around Tabuk and Al-Jouf.”

The program aims to provide technical education to these women, who would then be employed in maintenance and public utilities in women’s colleges and secondary schools.

Abshir’s new initiatives also include launching Al-Madinah Company for Food and Catering, a planned joint-stock company in Madinah, with the aim of providing employment for up to 500 of these women. The company would take some of the women trained through Abshir and employ them in food preparation and catering at local schools and colleges for women.

According to Abdul Aziz Al-Jammal, the founder of Abshir, the project has the endorsement of Madinah Gov. Prince Abdul Aziz ibn Majed to create this company with SR5 million as start-up capital.

A memorandum was recently signed between Abshir project developers and the National Committee for Young Entrepreneurs at the Madinah Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

“The project aspires to help and recruit thousands of women. In the event of the project’s expansion, it will provide better training and qualifications for women and also new fields of work,” Al-Butaini said.

She also said that salaries for these women would start modestly, at SR900 a month, with the potential of reaching SR2,000.

“We also recruit college and university graduates as supervisors, but our main focus is widows and divorcees that are in dire need for money and help,” she added.

Laura Bashraheel, Arab News