Faiz Al-Najdi RIYADH — To mark the 83rd Saudi National Day the Ministry of Culture and Information hosted a four-day cultural exhibition at King Fahd Cultural Center in Riyadh. Emir of Riyadh Prince Khalid bin Bandar inaugurated the event. More than 5,000 Saudis and expats visited the exhibition, which had a number of stalls – all manned by Saudi men and women. Many were attired in green color costumes. The exhibition displayed a hosts of rare and historic pictures of the founder of the Kingdom – King Abdul Aziz Al-Saud. These picture were from the personal collections of a Pakistan's Manzoor Ahmed, who has lived in the Kingdom for 37 years and was in SPA (Saudi Press Agency) for 35 years. The Saudi Ministry of Culture and Information stall, the first stall in the expo, displayed a huge number of books on various topics relating to the Kingdom in several languages — Arabic, English, German and French. The man-in-charge at the stall — Jihad Al-Jiffri, a librarian at the ministry — said the ministry publishes countless number of books every year and distributes it for free. The Ministry of Education stall, manned by Saudi men and women, was busy educating and training young kids in artwork. Trainer Saad Al-Malham said it was a great day today as it was his National Day. “I feel happy training and teaching artwork to the young kids – some of whom may become great artists in future,” Saad commented. The Ministry of Health (MOH) stall – from the Health Promotion Department and from the Home Care Department — had three women working in it. Ms. Asia is trained in educating the community on health. She was seen speaking with Saudi women and educating them on MOH programs on community health. Ms. Somaiyya represented MOH program on Home Care. “I deal with Home Care unit of MOH wherein we provide health care facilities to the old and disabled at their homes — mostly cancer patients,” Ms. Somaiyya added. Ms. Noura is a social worker and she also works with MOH units dealing with patient care. Faadia Al-Amri a young school-going girl was at a stall called Smart Investor. Faadia said she was a volunteer at the Smart Investor program that teaches young kids how to save money. “I like to save money myself and I want to give my free time as volunteer to teach young school kids about the importance of money and how to save it,” Faadia added. Tarek Abdullah El-Seif, an enthusiastic collector of Saudi postal stamps and old currency notes, was at the Saudi Arabian Philatelic Society stall. Hundreds of old Saudi postal stamps and historic Saudi currency notes – of all denominations were on display. “These are my personal collections and from some 20 other members of Saudi Philatelic Society,” Tarek said. Tarek showed off all his collections. It was quite interesting to see some currency notes — from King Abdul Aziz era — which had writings on it in Arabic and Urdu as well. “This rare collection of SR10 denomination of currency from King Abdul Aziz era will fetch a price of over SR 10,000 today,” Tarek added. In another stall Manzoor Ahmed displayed his collections of over 128 frames with rare and historic photos of King Abdul Aziz with his children and with foreign dignitaries like Prime Minister Winston Churchill of UK, President Theodore Roosevelt of USA, King Farooq of Egypt, and Governor General Ghulam Mohammad of Pakistan. Manzoor said as a part of his duty he has covered the official tours – both domestic and international – of late King Khaled, late King Fahd and the present King Abdullah. He said he has also traveled with the late Crown Prince Sultan. Late Crown Prince Naif and the incumbent Crown Prince Salman. “My duties have provided me opportunities to capture some of the rare photos of the Saudi leaderships,” Manzoor said. During visits to the exhibition venue, one Saudi young man was very prominent with his presence. He was confined to his wheelchair, attired in green color clothes and his wheelchair decorated with Saudi flags and the flags with the portraits of King Abdullah. Olayan Mansoor, 14 years ago – when he was around 17 years old – had met with a car accident and following a spine injury is now confined to wheelchair. But he has never lost hope and leads a normal life. He speaks English eloquently and works as a translator at the Riyadh Military Hospital. But the most important thing is that he leads a Society called Wheelchair Society and helps and motivates those who are confined to wheelchairs to lead a happy and normal life. He also works to generate awareness about providing facilities in the buildings for disabled people. “I lived in Germany for two years during my medical treatment there and I saw people very helpful towards disabled people. I saw ramps at the entrances of the buildings and facilities in toilets and elevators for the disabled,” Olayan said.
