KSU Bee Research Chair to support Yemeni foundation for orphans
A delegation from Yemen’s Orphan’s Development Foundation (ODF) recently visited King Saud University’s Chair for Bee Research to learn more about a specialty with which ODF can develop life skills programs for more than 14,000 orphans, 16 years and younger, who have been placed in its care by the Yemeni Ministry of Social Affairs.
The ODF, led by Secretary General Dr. Hamid Ziad, rehabilitates and trains orphan teens to master the technologies and skills needed for the job market, with the goal of achieving self-sufficiency. The Yemeni government estimates that there are approximately 400,000 orphans in the country, and since its participation in Yemen’s first meeting for the general assembly of the Orphan Foundation’s Industrial Council two years ago, the country has accelerated a program with focus on providing orphans opportunities to develop marketable skills.
King Saud University’s Chair of Engineer Abdullah Ahmad Bagshan for Bee Research, supervised by Dr. Ahmed Al-Khazim, was founded in 2009. The Chair quickly claimed a reputation for excellence, as well as the attention of ODF leaders who recognized the KSU Chair’s expertise, outstanding facilities, and successful outreach programs.
Dr. Ziad added that a link with the Chair is extremely attractive considering its experience with training needy families in Saudi Arabia’s Qelwah district, in the Al-Baha Province, and the fact that Yemen’s climate is quite conducive to beekeeping.
“We as Muslims are obliged to care for orphans”, Dr. Ziad said. “This visit demonstrates ODF’s desire to benefit from the Chair’s expertise in training orphans from the Foundation by drafting a program that will guide training and the empowerment of orphans. We are excited to be able to include beekeeping among the foundation’s rehabilitation programs.”
KSU’s Chair for Bee Research supervisor Dr. Ahmad Al-Khazim certainly welcomes the ODF’s decision to establish ties with his Chair, emphasizing beekeeping’s great potential for mitigating poverty and the economic returns it offers to needy families and individuals. He said that in addition to honey, bees produce a host of different marketable products such as beeswax, pollinated seeds, bee toxin and bee glue.
Dr. Al-Khazim, along with his researchers, faculty and staff, gave the ODF visitors a tour of their facilities, showing them their equipment and laboratories and explaining their functions. Before the ODF delegation left, an agreement was established in which the Chair will play a role in training, rehabilitating and supervising orphans in both Saudi and in Yemen.
The ODF has been devoted to the rehabilitation and education of orphans since 2003 when the rising of parentless children became painfully evident. When an ODF attended a 2009 general meeting at the Union of Non-Governmental Organizations of the Islamic World (UNIW), UNIQ Coordinator M. Fatih expressed his respect for the ODF’s success and appreciation for the delegation’s visit.
In addition to King Saud University, Dr. Ziad said that ODF has signed agreements with both Turkish and Malaysian organizations, which have expressed a willingness to provide technical support. While the Malaysian side is looking into developing an orphanage industrial city, to be conducted by the Malaysian expertise, the Turkish partners have discussed the provision of one hundred scholarships, annually, for orphans to acquire training in the industrial field.
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Thu, 16 Feb, 2012
Main, Research Chairs