Saudi Gazette

JEDDAH — Under the aegis of Princess Moudi Bint Khalid Bin Abdulaziz, Al Oula non-profit organization conducted the second edition of Basmat Khair festival, at the Hilton Hall in Jeddah. All the revenues from the festival will go to child development programs in south of Jeddah.

Basmat Khair 2 contained a wide variety of pavilions and activities such as productive families stalls, kids games, International market, Insta market, Photo shot, prizes and a pavilion that displayed handcrafts and classical artifacts.

One of the visitors was Khalid Almaeena, former editor in chief of Arab News and Saudi Gazette. He expressed his happiness at seeing the excellence of the participating productive families and said: “This festival improves year by year. It is nice to see that this festival offers young entrepreneurs and Saudis to come and display their products and help them and I think it’s a good business start-up for them and I wish they could do it twice a year so that young people will come and get together.”

Almaeena added: “I think people should buy things from here, local products, as Saudi products made by young people, will help the economy. Also I would like to thank Al Oula organization, for they have done a great job.”

Another visitor, famous TV journalist Ahmad Alarfaj noted: “I am glad to be here today. The idea is beautiful to support the children of southern Jeddah, I spent three hours of my team here but seriously I was so glad to see the spread of the culture of volunteerism in the Kingdom.”

About the aims of this festival, Dania Almaeena, CEO of Al Oula, emphasized: “All the money collected from this event will go towards child development programs for underprivileged children in south of Jeddah. We want to bring the community together to learn more about what we do as Al Oula organization since Al Oula is the first non-profit organization in Saudi Arabia. We want to focus on what we do as a cause. We break the cycle of poverty through early intervention.”

After the success of the festival, Nada Hammad, a member of the Board of Directors at Al Oula, said: “Teamwork is the foundation of success. Members of the Board of Directors alongside the other members at Al Oula, were all united in this humanitarian work, this is one of the pillars of success at charity. Truly it is one of the features of a true believer in Almighty Allah.”

Al Oula is a non-profit organization in Jeddah. It was born 56 years ago with a strong vision, to break the cycle of poverty in the local community of the Kingdom. Also to ensure the access of quality education and respectable life for the children of the community in southern Jeddah.

Al Oula wants to reach this goal through improving the quality of life, developing 21st century skills and enhancing physical fitness, for its beneficiaries.