Saleh Fareed

Saudi Gazette

JEDDAH – To bring a smile and happiness during Eid to street cleaners, a group of young men and women across the Kingdom launched a campaign called “Our Eid with our brothers the street cleaners.”



The philanthropic campaign which was launched on social networking sites has received a huge response from social media followers from all over the Kingdom.



In Jeddah, 23-year-old Sultan BaZaheer, who joined the campaign, told the Gazette that he noticed a hashtag on Twitter calling for helping street cleaners on the occasion of Eid and he liked the idea and the cause.



“These people deserve some recognition for their hardship and the tough job they do every day to keep the city clean. In response to this campaign we started to buy gifts and meals to give to street cleaners in our neighborhood,” he said. On his website, Fahad Al-Mousa, the person behind the idea and the initiator of the hashtag noted that the campaign is aimed at giving Eidiya “a giveaway gift on the occasion of Eid” in the form of a telephone calling card, meal and new clothes.



 “The calling card would come in handy as most of the street cleaners are expatriates, and they could use the card to call their families back home,” he said.



“It’s a good initiative for our workers and it tells them that there are people who still care about them,” he said.



The campaign’s hashtag displays a picture of a street cleaner at work and a message about doing good deeds and its effect on the workers in the Kingdom.



He mentioned that the campaign has received huge response not only in major cities of Saudi Arabia but also in other GCC cities. “We have received many calls from young people from UAE, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain who wanted to follow the same campaign in their countries and we hope by the end of Ramadan, the campaign reaches its peak.”



He said the campaign started as a personal initiative and suddenly became the talk of social network users.



“It all started with eight guys in the Eastern Province, but it took a turning point when we created a hashtag to inform others who are interested and most of those who joined the campaign are students and employees” he added.



Commenting on the hashtag, Majd Al Saigh said: “Hope everyone can contribute to this campaign by giving away either food or clothes or money or calling cards.”



Bilal Al-Hashdi praised the idea and said: “We really have to show our human side to those people who are away from their families and who also need the support in return to what they are doing for our community.”