By Anousha Vakani
Ektefaa is one of the most important charitable organizations in the Makkah region. Jawaher Al Korashi, Saudi activist and vice chairperson of Eketfaa, talks about the founding of the charity as well as their vision and mission.
When and how was Ektefaa Charity founded?
Ektefaa Charity was founded in 2007, specialized in gathering information in the Makkah area including all villages and their inhabitants. A group of philanthropists gathered to initiate a move to fill in the blank for real information on why families were falling into the category of need. This was apparently a missing niche in the field of social reform and charity donations, which resulted in haphazard giving to the needy.
Many poor families were not receiving their due because of misinformation or lack of it, or were getting charity when they needed help to sort out their affairs and be part of a growing and productive society.
The idea was new to the society and to the donors as well so in the beginning few saw the relativity and validity of our work but those few made a difference to the founding of Ektefaa Society.
We did not want to reinvent the wheel; so we initially gathered information from charitable bodies and individuals who had been sponsoring many such families and we found out that the only information they had was hearsay or a name and a number with no details. That meant that we had to build a team of professional surveyors to gather detailed information about the families in the area we were allocated to cover. The information we sought was meant to cover all aspects of the surveyed people: economically, socially, educationally and health-wise.
What is Ektefaa’s ultimate goal?
Our vision is to be the main authentic reference to all charitable work, human development and enhancement in the Makkah area and our aim is to help secure sufficiency to less fortunate families by observing their basic needs and to form healthy and effective partnerships with all related sectors in society to ensure the development of the community.
Can you tell us a little more about the obstacles you faced when setting up Ektefaa?
Because our initiative was new and not considered essential by many, some obstacles were encountered in the fields of financial support, licensing, positive response from surveyed, doubts of authenticity of our info and lack of demand or use of info in the required measures by givers and donors. Now, we have developed respect and belief in our mission and vision.
What other projects is Ektefaa involved in?
Ektefaa is specialized in field surveys for less fortunate families in random areas of the Makkah region. Our services include: documentation, social studies, providing projects and development programs and statistical analysis. We have a program to help families in an urgent state of famine or sickness, but then we refer them to the specialized entities and societies to continue the service.
Based on our information and detailed knowledge we also present informed initiatives for the advancement of certain statistical groups of needs. There is a program we will initiate soon called Road to Sufficiency, which should give socially responsible people a chance to help a family wholly and change their lives forever to the better. Ektefaa also does commissioned surveys to similarly directed organizations and entities in the aim of the development and enhancement of communities.
Can you tell us about your team?
Ektefaa has an all female, trained, qualified and patriotic team of field surveyors. Their role is to gather info according to our studied plans and under scientific methods, rules and regulations. We engage manpower in the field of supervision, security and automation, not to forget our in-house professional team of administrators and devoted employees.
Do you have a message for our readers?
Thank you for giving Ektefaa the chance to present itself and its specialized services. I would like to state my gratification for our charitably inclined Saudi society. They do try to help, to give and to uplift their brothers and sisters in humanity. I commend their kind charitable nature, diligence and their bestowals onto others. I just ask of them to use the information provided by Ektefaa in order to put their efforts in the exact needs of those who are less fortunate and also, to be a part of our organization by committing to our goals and becoming our members and messengers. Hand in hand we can make a difference.
