RIYADH: Charitable organizations in Saudi Arabia are racing to provide their services to beneficiaries through various means, especially during Ramadan. While some foundations provide medicine free of charge to people with chronic diseases, others seek to empower women in small and micro businesses, with one association launching a social investment company in March. Medicine Charitable Society (Dawaa) in Makkah aims to provide necessary medicines for about 3,000 poor and needy people during Ramadan, at a cost of nearly SR500,000 ($133,336). Abdel Nasser Batouq, chairman of the society’s board of directors, said: “Currently, the charity foundation has five programs that include patients with kidney (issues), diabetes, digestive system (issues), brain and nerve (issues), hypertension, and cardiovascular patients, and we are working closely to create a program for oncology patients.” The charity recently launched a service for delivering medicines to the homes of beneficiaries who do not have the ability to reach its headquarters. The Family Building Center (Jana), in cooperation with the National Agricultural Co., launched the Natural Soap Program in Al-Jawf, which focused on training women to make natural soap according to high-quality specifications and standards. Mahmoud Alshami, CEO of Jana, described the results as wonderful, “as the volume of production exceeded the market’s need and household sales reached more than SR40,000 per month.” Jana is one of the programs of the Sulaiman Al-Rajhi Foundation for Development Finance, one of the charitable institutions affiliated with the Sulaiman Al-Rajhi Endowment, which is one of the largest endowments in the world. HIGH LIGHTS Medicine Charitable Society (Dawaa) in Makkah aims to provide necessary medicines for about 3,000 poor and needy people during Ramadan, at a cost of nearly SR500,000 ($133,336). The Family Building Center (Jana), in cooperation with the National Agricultural Co., launched the Natural Soap Program in Al-Jawf, which focused on training women to make natural soap according to high-quality specifications and standards. The center has so far been able to support more than 180,000 women through 21 branches of the center spread around the Kingdom, with a cumulative loan portfolio estimated at SR1.8 billion, with a sustainability of more than 99 percent. The Mohammed Ibrahim Al-Subaie and Sons Charitable Foundation (Ghoroos) gives the month of Ramadan priority in its work, as special preparations are made for it several months in advance, said the foundation’s secretary-general, Abdul-Wahhab Al-Fayez. The distribution of dates is one of the charitable programs that Ghoroos implements annually, “because it is a strategic national product linked to the history and culture of Saudi Arabia. “One of its economic resources, the dates are one of the most important food sources and main meals for people in the region,” he explained. Al-Fayez pointed out the diversity in the month of Ramadan, which extends to include a number of charitable works, including preparing its mosques for worshippers and those in repentance, securing Ramadan baskets for families in their homes, and paying some debts according to certain conditions. Ghoroos established the Namaal Social Investment Co. in March 2022, and concluded several agreements, one of which is with the Red Sea Development Co., aiming to “promote the agricultural sector in the Red Sea Project area, provide various social and economic opportunities for the local community.”