The Ministry of Social Affairs is investigating serious managerial, financial and ethical failings at Jeddah's Social Protection Home for female victims of violence, sources have said. The violations are alleged to have occurred during the two years that the home was run by the Family Protection Society, before it was recently taken under the wing of the ministry. The sources said that a report is being prepared prior to being submitted to the authorities citing runaways, suicides, extended irregular stays, and a lack of family reconciliation programs said to have exacerbated domestic issues over which the women were first admitted to the home. The sources said spoke of misuse of donations to the home. A separate report, of which Okaz has seen a copy, also notes mixing of the sexes inside the Home, girls permitted to leave the premises with unrelated men, and the relocation of young girls to “unsuitable accommodation” in “dangerous districts with high crime rates”. The report cites “continual threats” from Society officials to admit girls to a mental hospital or expel them from the house, and “creating a culture of suicide”. A series of immoral behavior has occurred at the Home, according to the document, such as the use of hashish, tobacco and homosexual relations, and the report also mentions the practice of “oppression”, saying that women's families were made to feel reluctant to visit their relatives. One man whose daughter is housed at the Home, according to the report, said that she had seen “girls dressed improperly dancing and smoking”. The same woman also told her father of girls being allowed to leave the premises in the company of men, often remaining away for weeks at a time before returning. The Society was informed of the complaint and is believed to have conducted an investigation. The report further alleges that the Society hid donations from princes, officials and businessmen, and that it refused to cooperate with a human rights group. The hygienic conditions at the Home are described as “poor”, with worn out furniture, and garbage and dirt littering the premises. The Home failed to provide medication in fainting cases, justified by the facility's describing them instead as “attempted suicides”. The report says that the Family Protection Society was approached on March 23 over the allegations. Other sources told Okaz donations went on unnecessary expenses such as SR300,000 spent on an eight-second documentary produce by a company owned by a relative of an official at the home. The sources also spoke of “disappearing” donations and funds spent board members' personal travel inside the Kingdom and abroad.
