Prince Faisal Bin Abdullah, Minister of Education, has approved measures to strengthen the Rawafed project to benefit more and more students needing financial assistance. Rawafed, a new social project initiated by Ministry of Education, takes care of psychological and financial sides of the needy students by providing them uniforms, bags, stipend and clothes. Each school is required to set up a committee which along with a panel from the Education Ministry identifies the needy students by evaluating their economic and social capabilities. “Economic support will be provided to students by way of stipends, school items, or clothes. Also, psychological program and training in many skills is very important for them to fight poverty,” said Salem Al-Twairqi, Director of Guidance and Direction in Ministry of Education's Jeddah office. The school committee will consist of the institution's director, teachers, and a sociologist. “They will look at student's economic and social strata and the information is passed on to the management and specialists committee,” Al-Twairqi said. Secrecy, he said, is of paramount importance so as not to hurt the sentiments and lower the self-esteem of the selected students. The ministry, Al-Twairqi said, has been extending financial assistance to the needy students for many years. “Rawafed” program, approved this year, is a scientific approach to identify and assist students in need of financial and psychological help. “The new project aims at bringing all other efforts under an organized umbrella and cover all aspects like economic, psychological and educational,” he added.
