Saudi charity drive raises SR757 million in 10 days
Campaign handles 67 million donation operations benefiting 4.8 million people
Cairo: A Saudi national charity campaign has raised more than SR757 million by the end of Ramadan, 10 days after its kickoff, a Saudi state agency has said.
The third edition of the National Platform for Charity work was launched on April 10 with SR70 million in donations from Saudi King Salman bin Abdul Aziz and Crown Prince Mohammad.
The campaign has handled so far 67 million donation operations benefiting 4.8 million people, according to the Saudi Data and Artificial Intelligence Authority (SDAIA), which supervises the platform.
In 2021, the state Ehsan (Charity) platform was launched in Saudi Arabia. Donations have flowed into up to 23 fields mainly education, healthcare, housing and social relief.
The value of Zakat Al Fitr alms raised in the last two days of Ramadan, which ended on Thursday, totalled SR1.7 million, bringing the overall donations received by Ehasan to SR3.9 billion, the Saudi news agency SPA reported.
Zakat Al Fitr is a kind of obligatory charity given at the end of Ramadan.
The Ehsan platform is designed to invest data and artificial intelligence to maximise impact of development projects and services by providing advanced technological solutions and building an effective system through partnerships with governmental and non-profit private sectors.
The platform is overseen by a committee of 12 government agencies comprising SDAIA, the ministries of interior, financing, health, education, human resources, justice, municipal and village affairs, and housing as well as the Saudi central bank.