Introducing the city of Unayzah Humanitarian Society:

The Onaizah Humanitarian Society City Project is considered a national, regional, and pioneering sustainable development project that is concerned with the development of the human element in order to achieve the optimal investment of human energy at all levels, genders, ages, and individual differences, given that the human element is the basis of development in all areas of social, cultural, industrial, technological, ethical, and other areas of life. Just as the human being is the goal and goal of development, he is also its tool, means, planner, implementer, and culprit of its fruits.

This project focuses primarily on investing the potential energy of individuals with disabilities of all categories, whether they are from the categories of those suffering from functional disability or any of the developmental, developmental or sensory problems or mental and multiple disabilities in order to qualify, educate, train and empower them to be productive and active members of their society under the slogan of equal opportunities. And create all opportunities And the environmental factors that will support work in society to achieve participation in construction for all.

This project aims to achieve and implement disability prevention programs at its three levels stipulated by the World Health Organization, the first and second levels of which aim to reduce the incidence of disabilities of all kinds and activate programs that aim to prevent the development of functional disabilities that lead to permanent disabilities, and the third level which aims to   Planning and implementing treatment, care, rehabilitation, education, training and empowerment projects and programmes, which aim to rehabilitate people with disabilities and reintegrate them into society.

 

City headquarters and scope of its services:

The Humanitarian City is being implemented in the Unayzah Governorate in the Qassim region on a land area of more than 400,000 square metres. The site is distinguished by the fact that it connects a group of regions: Riyadh, Hail, Qassim, Medina, and the Western Region.

 

Objectives of the humanitarian city:

  • Global competition and contributing to the qualitative development of services at the regional and global level and empowering the Kingdom in the field of services for people with disabilities as a technical, scientific, research and service reference at the Arab and international level and supporting the efforts made to provide services of distinguished quality and quality.

  • Influencing Arab and international legislation to develop systems, laws and legislation that enable groups of people with disabilities to obtain their acquired rights to a decent quality of life.

  • Meeting the basic needs of the target group by providing a comprehensive and specialized system of programs and services for care, education, rehabilitation, treatment, training and empowerment according to an ambitious future vision for the target groups of the city.

  • Activating the role of social responsibility among individuals and private entities capable of contributing to development projects.

  • Localizing expertise in the Kingdom by attracting cadres specialized in working with this category and training national cadres to work with them.

 

 Targets:

All categories of people with disabilities and developmental delays and from all age groups, males and females.

 

 Strategic directions:

Within the association’s strategic vision, through which it seeks to expand the services provided to persons with disabilities in a specialized manner by working to establish an integrated city for humanitarian services, which represents the dream city. " It is a system of specialized centers to provide integrated and comprehensive specialized services for all categories of people with disabilities in one place with the aim of providing all specialized services to people with medical, educational, psychological, rehabilitative, social and vocational disabilities for all categories of disabilities of all age groups and achieving leadership in the level of type and quality of services provided at the Kingdom level and the regional and global levels.

 

The Society began planning to establish an integrated project for humanitarian services in the Qassim region, to be a growing project that will bring the Society to the regional and global level, according to the strategic directions adopted by the Society’s Board of Directors in the year 2013, by starting to implement the city according to 3 stages:

The first stage: Rules, establishment, studies, and plans for the city of Unayzah Humanitarian Society – Strategic Plan 2013 – 2018 AD

The second stage: Completing the remaining projects and competing in the Arab world as the best Arab charitable organization. Strategic Plan 2019 – 2023 AD

The third stage: Operating all city projects with a global perspective and global competition to enter among the top ten institutions at the global level. – Strategic Plan 2024 – 2029 AD

 

Justifications for establishing the city:

Investing in the general direction of the state to support the services sector in the Kingdom and privatize this sector while purchasing services from the private sector and empowering it in society as part of the sustainable development adopted by the Kingdom’s Vision 2030.

Providing government support opportunities for people with disabilities through a payment system, with a move towards privatizing the services sector for people with disabilities, from which this project can greatly benefit.

In line with the Kingdom’s approach to encouraging investment in medical tourism to the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and contributing to supporting the national economy.

Adopting the Kingdom's strategy through the vision to raise the level of the charitable sector's contribution to the domestic product and adopting such development projects will contribute to supporting this vital sector.

The great interest that the government of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia pays in the field of special education and rehabilitation at the level of preparing university competencies capable of working in this field, which has placed the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia at the top of the list of Gulf countries targeted for providing services to many of the people of the Kingdom, the Arab Gulf countries and others.

Providing competencies and expertise working in the field of care and rehabilitation of the disabled in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, whether citizen graduates or experts and practitioners recruited from outside the Kingdom, who will contribute to the localization of expertise in the Kingdom through training and educating citizens.

The steady increase in the number of disabled people of all categories in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and in the Arab Gulf countries, which require comprehensive services in care, rehabilitation, special education, early intervention, and supportive medical services.

The inability of centers in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to meet the needs of people with disabilities for comprehensive services for reasons related to the size of institutions or the limited vision to serve a specific category of people with disabilities and reducing waiting lists for government centers located in the region.

The lack of a sufficient number of research centers concerned with implementing research and studies on disabilities, programs, services, survey studies, and providing research, scientific, and service consultations in most regions of the Kingdom.

Providing distinguished quality services according to the latest international experiences to a number of disabled people from the region and other regions in the Kingdom to improve the clear shortage of services directed to groups of severe and multiple disabilities and those with developmental delays such as autism, whether day care services, transitional education, residential services, or community services.

The clear lack of services directed to post-childhood age groups over 14 years of age, especially vocational rehabilitation and employment programmes, with a high focus of services on groups in the early and late childhood stages.

The apparent lack of professionalism in providing services to people with disabilities, with the inappropriate urban or educational environment or technical equipment in many centers.

The inability of the centers in the Kingdom and the Gulf countries to accommodate the increasing numbers of people with disabilities, and many of them headed to Arab or foreign countries to access services, even with the high cost to the family and the state, whether in terms of direct or indirect costs that result from the families, in addition to the psychological pressures on the family. The inability of similar centers to meet the needs of all applicants for services from these categories.

 

Global statistical indicators:

More than one billion people in the world have some form of disability, which represents approximately 15% of the world’s population today (Source: World Health Organization 2011) 13.5% of the total world population at the end of the twentieth century. (WHO 2015)

The percentage of disability in Arab countries ranged between (0.5% - 4.9%) of the population, the highest in Sudan and the lowest in Qatar. (Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia - ESCWA 2014).

International Labor Organization statistics indicate that 60-80% of people with disabilities in developing countries live in rural areas far from specialized centers and institutions where they do not receive any educational, rehabilitation or health services.

 

National statistical indicators within the Kingdom:

All statistics from the 2016 Demographic Survey - General Authority for Statistics

The population of the Kingdom is 20,064,970 Saudi citizens, representing 67% of the total population of the Kingdom.

The number of people with disabilities in the Kingdom, according to the 2016 demographic survey of the General Authority for Statistics, is (667,280), and the percentage of people with disabilities in the Kingdom constitutes 3.3% of the total population (General Authority for Statistics - Demographic Survey of the Kingdom 2016)

The number of people with disabilities in the Kingdom of both sexes (males and females) in the age group extending from one to 44 years is (441,838) out of (667,280), i.e. (66%), which is the main target group of this project.

The percentage of people with disabilities who do not receive services constitutes (33.2%) of the total number of people with disabilities in the Kingdom.

 

Local statistical indicators within the Qassim region:

All statistics from the 2016 Demographic Survey - General Authority for Statistics

The population of the Qassim region, the center of the Humanitarian City, is (991,032) people, and the number of people with disabilities in the Kingdom is (667,280) out of the total population, and the number of disabled people in the Qassim region is (20,266).

 

The number of disabled people in the age group (1-9 years) in the Kingdom is (96,434), and they are the target group for early intervention services.

 

As for the number of disabled people in the age group (10-24 years), their number reached (166,612), and they are the target group for day care, vocational rehabilitation, and autism.

 

In the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, mobility disability is the most common disability. The number of people with mobility disabilities is (254,679), representing (38%) of the total number of disabled people in the Kingdom, including (164,431) cases of severe mobility disabilities. Males represent (146,091) cases, accounting for (57%) of them.

 

Mental disability (those who need self-care, weak cognitive skills, and speech disorders) in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is the second disability in prevalence. The number of mentally disabled people is (99,836), representing (15%) of the total disabled people in the Kingdom, of whom the percentage of males is the highest (60,323) cases. (61%). There are also (54,675) cases of severe mental disabilities.

 

 

Number of people with disabilities in the cities and regions targeted by the city (city gender total):

"Male Female"

City: 22608 14410 37018

Riyadh: 98075 59334 157409

Qassim: 11031 9235 20266

Mecca: 98695 69401 168096

Tabuk: 18757 11860 30617

Total: 413406