Bir Charitable Society will build houses in north Makkah for every poor family in villages south of the city, a charity official said. A 450-square-meter area has been allotted for each home, said Sheikh Abdullah Bin Minai'i, chairman of the Board of Directors of Al-Bir Charitable Society for Villages in South Makkah and the advisor at the Royal Court. He said the project, to construct the model village in Tafail Village, some 200 km south of Makkah, will be carried out in the near future. Bin Minai'i expects that about 400 families will benefit from the project to house them for 20 years, which he said will bring about ‘positive' changes in their lives. He said Prince Khaled Al-Faisal, Emir of Makkah, is backing the project and directed five government agencies to facilitate its implementation and also gave the go-ahead to open an office for the emirate inside the model village. Bin Minai'i said a social survey of groups registered with the charity will be conducted before the houses are distributed. They will not be registered in the beneficiaries' names as a precautionary measure to prevent their being sold, he added. Abdullah Bin Dawood, head of the charity's executive committee, said the Tafail Village was chosen as the location because there are government services there, it is far away from sand dunes. Dr. Muhammad Nasser Al-Kheraim, deputy president of the Affairs of the Holy Haram and member of the Al-Bir Charitable Society, said the committee in charge of the project will sign a contract with an engineering office to carry out the project's designs. Abed Bin Saleem Al-Hosni, executive director of the A-Bir Charitable Society, said “the standard of care for needy families in south Makkah has tangibly improved thanks to generous contributions from the Ministry of the Social Affairs and philanthropists.” The charitable organization has provided financial aid worth SR4 billion to 1,900 needy families in south Makkah and renovated hundreds of houses.
