Saudi Gazette report

JEDDAH — Makkah Emir Prince Khaled Al-Faisal on Saturday opened the Makkah e-gate for voluntary work at a function held at the governorate in Jeddah.

Earlier Prince Khaled chaired a meeting in Jeddah to discuss various aspects of volunteerism and ways to encourage it. The meeting was attended by Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Development Tamadour Al-Rammah, Undersecretary of the Makkah Governorate Hisham Al-Falih and a number of the ministry's officials.

According to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA), the meeting discussed cooperation between the governorate and the ministry to activate the objectives and initiatives of the development sector in the region in line with the objectives of the Kingdom's Vision 2030.

Rammah made a presentation about the voluntary work, the National Gate for Volunteering, the strategy of the non-profitable sector and the development needs of the region.

She said the ministry was implementing a number of programs and initiatives to encourage voluntary work in a professional and high-quality manner so as to develop and empower it through a number of methods including the Makkah e-gate for voluntary work, which will be a bastion of humanitarian activities.

The emirate established a special unit for the voluntary work and held the first seminar on the topic about six months ago.

At the end of the meeting, Prince Khaled inaugurated the Makkah's e-gate for the voluntary work in which more than 6,800 young men and women have already registered.

The emirate has plans to increase the number of the men and women volunteers to about 1 million by the year 2030.