Saudi Gazette report RIYADH — A number of divorced women and widows have called on the authorities to reconsider the social aid given to them. They said the monthly allowance hardly gets them by due to the increasing cost of living, Al-Riyadh newspaper reported. They also called for a review of the funding allocated for supporting productive family projects, saying there should be more funds to help poor families who apply for the scheme. A program similar to the Hafiz unemployment scheme should be set up for divorced women and widows with a monthly allowance of SR2,000, they said. Some of them said the SR863 social aid they get every month barely gets them through the first two weeks of the month. Therefore, setting up a program like Hafiz should guarantee decent living conditions for each and every divorced woman and widow, they claimed. Fatima Kheder is a widow with four children. Her husband died poor and she lives with her children in her father's house. She said the monthly allowance she gets does not help her provide for her family. Kheder said she wondered why authorities do not design a special program for this section of society to help them lead a decent life. Authorities should start to provide training for women and prepare them to enter the job market and depend on their own, she said. She believes such a program should give divorced women and widows enough money to help them focus on training and learn new skills. Umm Fadi has two daughters and receives SR1,350 in social aid. She lives in her brother's house with her children, and toward the end of the month she has to borrow money from her sisters because the benefits are not enough. She said she has two little daughters who need a lot of necessities in addition to food and clothes. Dr. Habibullah Turkistani, marketing management professor of King Abdulaziz University, suggested the current social system should be reformed in light of the rapid social and economic changes Saudi society has been experiencing. He believes that setting up a program similar to Hafiz for divorced women and widows is important. Some of those women do not have brothers or next-of-kin who can support them financially, Turkistani noted. They suffer immensely to raise and provide for their children, he said. The Ministry of Social Affairs should seriously consider having such a program as it will solve various problems for these women, he claimed. Dr. Noora Al-Ajlan, deputy director for family affairs at the National Society for Human Rights, said divorced women and widows also get annual financial aid in addition to their monthly allowance. She pointed out that there are additional support programs from which this category of people can benefit, but some beneficiaries do not know about these schemes. She added that society discussed the demands for increasing social aid with the Ministry of Social Affairs. Ministry officials said the ministry did not focus on financial aid only but also on non-financial programs that could help divorced women and widows. Al-Ajlan called for a revision of current programs and designing solutions that ensure beneficiaries receive more financial aid in order to afford high living expenses.
