Donations for disabled children urged

More donations are needed to assist children with disabilities in the Kingdom because treatment costs for one child is about SR100,000 a year, said Prince Sultan bin Salman.

Prince Sultan, who is the chairman of the Disabled Children’s Association (DCA), was quoted as saying by a local publication recently that the organization has a SR28 million shortfall in its SR120 million budget for this year.
He said that most of the money raised has been through endowment projects, which have already yielded SR92 million this year, but more is needed in terms of donations.
“This charity work must be done inside Saudi Arabia, a country which should lead the world in this regard,” he said. “The King Salman Center for Disability Research established by the DCA more than 25 years ago has now borne fruit.”
The DCA is now building an endowment project worth SR230 million in Riyadh. “Work on this project is progressing well and the contractor has so far complied with the contract’s conditions and timeframe. We are very happy with this big achievement,” he said.
He said the DCA has been set up for every child needing assistance in the country. It has spent huge amounts of money over the years to educate the public on disability issues in partnership with other organizations.
Prince Sultan said there was generally a poor understanding of disability issues and the DCA was working hard to increase awareness and educate the public about how to help these people.
“Today we see many people with disabilities working in top jobs with excellent results. Personally, I prefer to describe these people as having ‘special abilities’ and not as ‘special needs.’ 
They are human beings with special abilities and can overcome obstacles in their lives,” he said. 
Prince Sultan was speaking during the signing of two contracts, for the King Salman bin Abdulaziz and Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz charity investment towers in Makkah, which the DCA is building to provide a permanent source of income for the organization.
He said Panda and the Mobily company were among the firms supporting these projects in Makkah.