Fine Motor Skills Workshop

Hope for Exceptional Needs, Saudi Arabia’s first and only multilingual center for life skills catering for children 0 years and above is holding their first training workshop on fine motor skills on the 13th February, 2013.

“All funds collected through these workshops will fund needy children who require financial aid to support their growth at the center, ” says Founder Uzma Raheem. “With the help of this workshop we will be able to train people and help needy children at the same time”.

For further details, call the Center on 699 6475/5246.

20 Tips for a Green Jeddah

Things are looking greener for Jeddah as an increasing number of green enthusiasts and environmental initiatives have sprung up in the city, and it has become much easier to Reuse, Reduce and Recycle. Anousha Vakani speaks to a couple of such enthusiasts who agree that while the environmental situation in Jeddah leaves much to be desired, we have come a very long way in the last decade.

Sahar Radwan, a volunteer at Mawakeb Al-Ajr and a member of the Taif Orphans Association, explains that the pick-up truck from Trewind for the recyclables collected on their venue is now needed everyday as opposed to just once a month when they began six years ago. She talks about the increasing awareness among the people of Jeddah, and says, “people are very interested in the idea of recycling and reusing things. It’s a new culture for them but they are very enthusiastic about the fact that there is a place where they can send recyclable or reusable items.” However, Sahar admits that there is a transportation issue as the recycling situation in Jeddah is not yet big enough for recyclables to be picked up from individual areas. Instead, households must drop off their recyclables to Mawakeb Al-Ajr’s venue in Khalidiyah. Due to this, Sahar admits that other than many schools and companies, most families that drop off recyclables live close by in the Khalidiyah or Rawdah Districts.

Jeddah has seen the appearance of public recycling bins which can be found in many schools, colleges, hospitals and even supermarkets such as Hyperpanda, Wall Street Institute and United Doctors Hospital. Recycling bins have also been seen lined on a couple of streets.

@Huda_Alamoudi

Mona Othman co-founder of Naqa’a Enterprise, which provides sustainability solutions to companies, has also noticed a significant improvement in the environmental awareness levels between today and five years ago. Naqa’a Enterprise has worked with companies such as Nestlé and Abdul Lateef Jameel Co. Ltd. as well as Dar El Hekma College and Friends of Jeddah Parks.

Mona believes that the awareness of proper waste disposal will lead to a much better future for the environment. She goes on to add that currently they are contacted “mostly by international companies with young people who have either studied abroad or grown up there with environmental awareness, or due to pressure from international branches.”

Local companies are, however, slowly entering the green scene. One such company is The Loft, a creative hub based in Jeddah. Co-founder Ruba Sidani mentions that The Loft uses a very minimum amount of paper in the office but does end up with a good amount of plastic water bottles. After a little research they came across Mawakeb Al-Ajr and now send recyclable items to their venue in the Khalidiyah District.

Ruba explains that The Loft team is very enthusiastic about water and energy saving and the reuse of resources. She asserts, “We felt that especially in Saudi the topic of recycling is not of any significance, so we thought we would start in the office and once it kicks off we would move on to a campaign to try to spread awareness and to encourage people to separate their waste and recycle. We hope this catches on because it is for a much greater good, better for Saudi and better for the world.” The Loft has recently collaborated with Ateeq on a promo video of the Trochet project.

The Trochet project is the brainchild of Diana Rayyan, and another green campaign that Jeddah can be proud of. Trochet (trash + crochet) aims to reuse, through crochet, plastic and other recyclable items in the creation of hand-made products. They have even managed to design and create a bean bag made of crocheted strips of plastic. Recycling bins will soon be placed for the collection of plastic bags for Trochet.

The people of Jeddah are strongly urged to do their bit to help paint Jeddah in the vibrant green that it deserves. Jeddah Blog has compiled twenty tips for a greener Jeddah to help you start off:

mobilecommons.com

 

Twenty Tips For a Green Jeddah !

• Aim for shorter showers, reduce the flow of your shower head and don’t keep the water running while brushing your teeth.

• Turn off the lights when you leave the room, especially if you’ll be gone for more than a minute.

• Recycle technology; old laptops and cellphones can be sold to local shops who will usually offer a good deal as most parts are reusable.

• Participate in Earth Day 2013, follow green blogs and local environmentalists to stay up to date and participate in events taking place in Jeddah on Earth Day. Take a look at activities from Earth Day 2011.

• Raise awareness by inviting environmentalists to give talks at your school, college, workplace orevent. Companies and groups such as Naqa’a Enterprise, Al-Nabta and Faseelah hold environmental awareness lectures.

• Educate children at home by encouraging them to reuse and recycle wherever possible. Start them off at a young age by looking for green activities to do with your toddlers, such as recycled material in an arts and crafts project.

• Make an effort to improve air quality and reduce traffic by carpooling whenever you can.

• Reduce the amount of plastic bags you bring home from the grocery store. Ask the bagger to place as many items as possible into a single bag. Better yet, take your own reusable bags to bring home your groceries in.

• Switch off the hot water boiler in summers. Tap water in the summertime is usually hot enough for showers and household chores.

• Buy your groceries in bulk and reduce the amount of containers that have to be recycled.

• The greener the product, the better. Look for environmental friendly products the next time you go shopping. Take a look at Destination Jeddah’s Green Living section for updates on green products.

• Unplug cellphone and laptop chargers when not in use

• Separate your trash immediately into paper, plastic, metal and glass. Consider colour coding your waste baskets to make it easier and more fun for the family. Take a look at Trewind’s How You Can Help section for details on this.

3mireland.ie

• Bring the separated recyclable items to your nearest collection point such as Hyper Panda, Mawakeb Alajer, Wall Street Institute and United Doctors Hospital. Contact Trewind for more information on collection points.

• Volunteer at local green activities, such as the Trochet project by Ateeq and several projects by YIG Jeddah, Mawakeb Alajer and Friends of Jeddah Parks.

• Khayra Bundakji, an environmental enthusiast and student at Effat University tweeted a useful and simple green tip; invest in reusable cups and take them to cafes instead of using their disposable ones. If you have your coffee (or tea) on the go, invest in a thermal coffee cup and have your daily drink in your own reusable cup, saving hundreds of paper and plastic cups per month. These reusable cups can be found in places such as Lifestyle, Home Centre, Ikea and most grocery stores.

• Instead of giving kids money to buy bottled water from school, invest in a reusable water thermos for them to take to school.

• If you have large windows at home, open the curtains and let in the natural light for as long as possible before switching the lights on.

• Set your air conditioner on a timer instead of keeping it on all night.

• Donate old clothes, toys, books and furniture to local charity groups such as YIG Jeddah or second-hand shops such as Mawakeb Alajer. Organizing a yard sale in your compound or neighbourhood can help you to get rid of items no longer needed as well as make you a little extra cash. Items can also be sold online at Expatriates.com or Jeddah Yard Sale on Facebook.

Green Bookmarks

Naqa’a Environmental Enterprise

GREENation Saudi Arabia

Green Jeddah

Destination Jeddah

Mawakeb Alajer

Ateeq

YIG Jeddah

Trewind

Faseelah

Saudi Environmental Society

Friends of Jeddah Parks

Green Prophet

Liyano Design and Production

Jeddah Yard Sale

Green Crafts for Kids

A Tribute to the Father of Urdu

Rohail A. Khan – Event Sponsor

Rohail A. Khan, senior banker and finance director, has been living in Saudi Arabia since 1993 and is developing communities through literature, culture and philanthropy. As chief guest of the memorial service of the Father of Urdu, Rohail Khan reports the success and conclusions of the event for Jeddah Blog.

For the first time in Saudi Arabia, a grand event was organized in the memory of Baba-e-Urdu (Father of Urdu), Dr. Moulvi Abdul Haq, to commemorate his 140th birthday and to propagate his message. Jeddah has rarely witnessed such extraordinary enthusiasm and exemplary love for Urdu.

Who was Baba-e-Urdu?

Baba-e-Urdu (1872-1961) was an acclaimed Urdu educator, writer, critic, linguist, lexicographer, editor, compiler, translator, etymologist, biographer and grammarian. He authored more than 20 books on these areas. Having realized the slow demise of the Persian language, Moulvi Abdul Haq devoted his entire life to making Urdu the primary language of the sub-continent and to placing it head-to-head with English and Arabic. He founded and managed Anjuman Taraqqi-e-Urdu, an organization dedicated to the promotion of Urdu language and literature, for 50 years pre-partition. During his migration in 1947, he carried 15,000 rare Urdu books from Delhi to Karachi. He was the moving spirit behind the establishment of the Osmania University in Hyderabad, Deccan, where Urdu is still one of the mediums of instruction. The world’s largest Urdu Translation Centre was established where rare Urdu books and Deccani manuscripts were translated and published. He was also instrumental in setting up the world’s first Islamia College for Women, Lahore in 1939, and Pakistan’s first Urdu College in Karachi (1949). He was the creator of the world’s largest Urdu-English Dictionary (1930) and in 1959 initiated the grand project of compiling a Modern Urdu Dictionary in 22 volumes. This project was completed three years ago under the Urdu Dictionary Board, Pakistan.

The Memorial Event

The memorial event was held at Lasani Restaurant on the evening of 21st November, 2012. The successful event had been organized by the Aalmi Urdu Markaz and welcomed more than 275 guests from all walks of life. Men, women and especially youngsters hailing from assorted nationalities all gathered together to commemorate Baba-e-Urdu’s 140th birthday. Multi-cultural community leaders, social workers, businessmen and literary figures added to the light of the event. The audience were treated to a four-hour literary discussions and poetic recitations and warmly applauded the proceedings.

A very diverse audience commemorating the 140th birthday of the Father of Urdu.

The event took off with a short video containing a speech by Baba-e-Urdu and his life story with rare pictures, before the poetry recitals and literary discussions.

On stage from left: V.P. of Aalmi Urdu Markaz, Rohail A. Khan, Hon. Tahseem ul-Haq, President of Aalmi Urdu Markaz and poet Anwar Ansari with the Executive Team from Aalmi Urdu Markaz.

Chief Guest, Rohail Khan, shared his thoughts on Baba-e-Urdu with the organizers and participants, and offered practical suggestions to promote and protect Urdu.

“Architect and saviour of Urdu language and literature, Baba-e-Urdu, Dr. Moulvi Abdul Haq’s lifetime services to protect and promote Urdu are spread over 75 years. He proved a Prophet of Urdu and his message must be adequately propagated for the benefit of current and future generations. Le us not forget that Urdu, 4th largest language, is spoken by over 100 million people across 5 continents.”

7 Steps to Promote Urdu

Rohail A. Khan suggested seven projects to promote Urdu:

1. Renew the Anjuman-e-Taraqqi-e-Urdu and propagate its mission across the globe by supporting tertiary local and international Urdu-serving institutions.
2. Promote the importance of Urdu as a means to enhance our knowledge about Islam.
3. Build the brand of Urdu world-wide through the proactive use of social media.
4. Studying Baba-e-Urdu’s works and achievements and spreading his message by establishing Urdu faculties and research chairs at Ivy League Universities for the award of doctorate degrees on Urdu.
5. Launch new Urdu periodicals, Urdu dictionaries and encyclopaedia.
6. Identify and promote upcoming Urdu writers and poets.
7. Launch “Urdu Academy International” as a global think-tank to incubate new ideas and projects to promote and protect Urdu.

The first goal is to launch the cause of making Urdu one of the official languages of Facebook. Rohail Khan can be reached at rohailkhan00@gmail.com and on Facebook.

– compiled by Anousha Vakani

A review of ‘Head Over Heels in Saudi Arabia’

Many of us heard via social media about the play Head Over Heels in Saudi Arabia being performed at the Effat University. Our very own Anousha Vakani was lucky to win tickets and attend the performance. She pens down her thoughts and reviews Head Over Heels in Saudi Arabia exclusively for Jeddah Blog.

Head Over Heels in Saudi Arabia – a satirical look at the lives of Saudi women.

When I first heard about Maisah Sobaihi’s solo performance Head Over Heels in Saudi Arabia over a year ago, I was just as surprised as everyone else to hear that such live entertainment exists here for, and most importantly BY women. I was looking forward to attending the October 2012 performance and luckily enough none of my expectations were disappointed as the play was every bit as witty and poignant as previous reviews and promos promised.

Also worth mentioning is that I happened to win one out of three giveaway tickets from Alaa Balkhy’s blog, so a shout-out of appreciation is due to Alaa Balkhy, her blog and her designs at Fyunka for being the cherry on top of a wonderful evening.

October 2012 introduced the first ever Arabic performance of Head Over Heels in Saudi Arabia. However, as I don’t speak Arabic, I attended the English performance at Effat University on the 9^th of October. The English performance was peppered with just the right amount of Arabic words and phrases to add to the hilarity and Arab flavour of the play.

Head Over Heels in Saudi Arabia is a satirical performance based on the private lives of Saudi women. As if pulling off a show that dances with almost dangerous grace around such a theme isn’t an extraordinary feat on its own, Maisah Sobaihi also plays the role of writer, director and sole actor of her performance. This one-woman show is the perfect blend between a play and stand-up comedy, and Ms. Sobaihi switches with fluid ease from playing the different characters and narrating the scenes unfolding before her audience.

Maisah Sobaihi captivating on stage.

The curtain rises to the sound of music and a striking first impression as the stage is divided into three sets, each designed as per the classic Arabian tastes of colour and lavishness. Dressed in red and black, Maisah Sobaihi begins her performance with an introduction on how she “fell in love in Saudi Arabia” against all odds. Right from the very beginning Ms. Sobaihi is engaged in a conversation with her audience; an audience that relates to her story and to the stories of Maryam and Laylah.

She introduces the character of Maryam as a wife and mother of two who finds out through the grapevine that her husband has taken a second wife. Ms. Sobaihi then takes over the plush seats of the central set and as Maryam, has a rather comic conversation with her husband who hints at an interest in taking a second wife. She initially laughs off his ridiculous reasoning of being overcome with a sense of social responsibility towards the single and divorced women of Saudi society. She retorts that if he has indeed been “struck by the cupid of social responsibility” there are a number of projects he can undertake instead, cleaning up the litter on the Corniche being only one of her many spirited suggestions.

A superb performance by Ms. Sobaihi.

Maryam’s husband then has an official wedding and Ms. Sobaihi attends it as Maryam’s spy but due to the characteristically loud music of Saudi weddings can’t understand whether wife number two is “a teacher or a preacher.”

In keeping with the light-hearted mood of the play, Maryam’s outbursts of rage combined with her incredible wit are comical for the most part, but a hush resonates in the audience as her husband’s betrayal becomes more apparent and they watch her heart break on stage.

Laylah, who is introduced in-between Maryam’s story and Ms. Sobaihi’s riveting commentary on the social issues unfolding before us, is also a mother but a divorcee of seven years. Laylah is a loud and lovable personality, and while she has a job and comes off as generally independent, she admits to being lonely. When Laylah takes the stage she is casually lounging on a chair smoking hookah and trying to convince Ms. Sobaihi to dive into a Misyar marriage. The audience is drawn into a hilarious one-sided banter as Laylah counters every one of Ms. Sobaihi’s arguments against Misyar marriages.

Ms. Sobaihi then moves to the center of the stage to comment on the conversation that has just taken place. She explains that after her divorce, her friends and family tried to convince her to remarry, but she remained convinced that ‘you can’t hurry love’.  At this point she breaks out into a song and invites the audience to join in.

Apart from love, marriage and conventionality, Ms. Sobaihi touches lightly on other issues including transportation. She portrays the dependency of Saudi women on their drivers as she calls Mohammad at three in the morning overcome by a sweet-tooth craving for chocolates from Danube.

She also talks about the Saudi obsession with gossip, retorting through Maryam that in this society people go out of their way to “make sure you know exactly what you don’t want to know.”

The stories of Maryam and Laylah take pretty predictable turns but the combination of Ms. Sobaihi’s flawless acting and commentary make for an overall touching and perceptive performance. Right before curtain fall, Ms. Sobaihi returns to the topic of the love of her own life and brings in a surprise which makes for a perfectly appropriate ending.

Head Over Heels in Saudi Arabia is a comical insight and a very artistic representation of social issues pertaining to Saudi society and a definite must-watch. If you happened to miss it this October stay tuned to Maisah Sobaihi’s official website, Facebook and Twitter pages for updates on upcoming performances.

Keep your coins, I want change!

Guest blogger Anosha Vakani introduces us to a unique e-show, 3alahawana, which discusses the values, the passions and the challenges facing Saudi women today, and reveals to us the process whereby this insightful programme came about.

We’ve all put in our two cents halalas on the subject of today’s media and while a passionate rant over its sorry state is undoubtedly called for, there are some who have traded in their two cents worth on this well-worn topic for actual change.

Do we want coins, or do we want change?

Israa Al Qassas and Loujain Basri, students at Effat University and members of its Media Club, are co-hosting a one-of-a-kind show on the e-channel 3alahawana.

It all started with the forming of The Media Club back in October 2011 when a bunch of students from Effat decided that instead of droning on about the problems with today’s media, a much better use of their time would be to become part of the solution.