RIYADH — The Ministry of Social Affairs is currently working on the unification of the parameters and procedures concerning the sponsorship of orphans or illegitimate children all over the Kingdom, a senior official of the ministry has stated. Latifa Abunayan, assistant undersecretary of the Ministry for Social Affairs, said the procedures include confidentially carrying out criminal check of the would-be sponsoring father, to check if he is fit to sponsor an orphan or an illegitimate child. She said a team of social workers and psychiatrists will visit the sponsoring families to study their social status and make sure they are suitable as sponsors. “The team will also ask for affidavits about the father from the district's mayor and also from his colleagues at his workplace,” she said. Abunayan said under a program called “effective parenting,” social supervisors from the ministry will hold constant meetings with the sponsoring families to enlighten them about the best methods of bringing up a child. She said the family will also be enlightened about the best method of informing the sponsored child about his background before he or she goes to school. “We will provide the family with a booklet containing answers to all queries the sponsored child may ask. If the sponsored child is informed about his background at a later age, his or her relationship with the family may get complicated,” she said. Abunayan said if the mother of an illegitimate child is a foreigner, she will be deported with her child after serving her jail term. “If the father is a Saudi and wants to marry the mother, she will be allowed to stay and they will be given custody of the child,” she said. The official said if the mother was Saudi, her child would be taken from her and given to a social home or a sponsoring family. Abunayan, however, said if the Saudi mother wanted to keep her child after serving her prison term, the ministry will carefully study her psychological, social and financial legibility and the condition of her family before allowing her to keep the child. She denied that the divorce rate among orphan girls living in social care homes is high and said the ratio was kept low due to the good selection of husbands by the ministry's marriage committee. Abunayan said the committee will thoroughly study applications of interested husbands, interview them and collect data about them from their families, relatives, friends and work colleagues. “When we find the would-be husband suitable, we will arrange for him to see the girl he would marry,” she said. She said when the girl gives her approval, she will receive intensive training to prepare her for married life and the wedding ceremony will take place normally like in any other ordinary family.
