JEDDAH — A new volunteering portal launched on Sunday at the Jeddah Camber of Commerce and Industry (JCCI) seeks to provide the nonprofit sector with 1 million volunteers each year. The portal will be an interactive platform that hopes to empower nonprofit organizations and make them work professionally in line with Saudi Vision 2030. The portal, set up in cooperation with the University of Business and Technology (UBT), was announced at a press conference at JCCI. According to JCCI Deputy chairman Mazen Batterjee, the nonprofit sector in the Kingdom needs the services of 1 million volunteers every year to fulfill the goals of Vision 2030. He said the portal will encourage nonprofit organizations to develop an institutional process and at the same time it will provide them with trained volunteers whose data are registered. Husain Alawi, general manager of UBT, said the university was cooperating with JCCI to establish a proper volunteering portal. He said the university requires each student to give 100 volunteering hours. Each year UBT students will give a total of 500,000 volunteering hours to the market. He said they would soon start registering their students on the new portal. A smart phone application will be available within 10 days, he added. Hani San, of the social responsibility wing at JCCI, said their goal was to unify efforts and create a platform where volunteers, the private sector, universities and nonprofit groups can come together.
