To be eligible for charity aid, a male beneficiary should be long-bearded and have no TV receivers at home, according to a statement by the Social Affairs Department in Makkah about the conditions set by charity organizations. The charity organizations have also stipulated that the beneficiary should know by heart a full part of the Qur'an and perform the five daily prayers at his local mosque, said Ali Al-Hinaki, Director of Social Affairs Department in Makkah. “We don't approve of the unrealistic conditions of some charity organizations,” he said. If they keep on advancing these conditions, it could lead to undesirable consequences on the part of the beneficiary such as committing crimes to get money, he added. In a separate comment, Al-Hinaki described the newly released 100-page report by the National Society for Human Rights criticizing the performance of the Social Affairs Department as “poisonous” and “baseless.” A truth-seeking committee formed earlier by the Makkah Emirate and governorate to investigate the claims of the report has submitted its findings. The report “was not accurate in either its claims or information,” he said. Social protection houses for the disabled and orphans run by the Ministry of Social Affairs still need to be improved and to have better programs, Al-Hinaki said. “Many orphans have been found guilty of criminal offenses inside those houses,” he said. There are over 11,000 disabled people in the region who receive financial aid from the Social Affairs Department.
