Queen Rania Hails Role of Private Sector in Social Development

(Office of Her Majesty, Press Department – Qweismeh) Her Majesty Queen Rania Al Abdullah visited another Madrasati school, Sunday, to hail the role of the private sector in social development and encourage corporations to get deeply involved with communities as part of their corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs.

The Umm Al Qoura Elementary Mixed School, which was established in 1994, was recently adopted by Pharmacy 1 under the Madrasati initiative. As part of their commitment to the holistic approach of Madrasati’s adoption program, the company did not stop at simply renovating the school’s infrastructure.

Working alongside the elementary students, employees from Pharmacy 1 developed and performed a play to teach the young learners how to tell the difference between medicine and sweets. Other staff members were also holding an awareness session for teachers on how to deal with chronic disease.

By encouraging companies to focus on using their professional skills, Queen Rania said she believes employees will feel a greater sense of fulfillment in volunteering their time. “Volunteers who use their professional skills are more likely to continue volunteering,” she said, “and when the students see professionals dedicating their personal time to them, it nurtures their self confidence.”

As the Queen toured the workshops, the elementary students took pride in showing off their new knowledge of medication by using direct quotes from the play to show that they were in fact paying attention to the interactive learning experience.

Other than quotes, the children also spewed out personal anecdotes about how much they enjoyed the attention from their new mentors. Feeling they have established a genuine bond, both children and students showed a deep appreciation for the personal commitment of each Pharmacy 1 employee in renovating both the infrastructure and the morale in Umm Al Qoura.

So far, over 45 companies have dedicated their human and financial resources to renovating some of the Kingdom’s most dilapidated public schools, providing hope and opportunity to thousands of students.