Saudi Gazette report

JEDDAH – Al-Wedad Charity Foundation, which takes care of orphans and children with unknown parents, is following several procedures to look after abandoned children, like the infant who has recently been dropped off near a mosque in Jeddah by an unidentified woman, Al-Madina newspaper reported.

A source at the charity said the first step the foundation took was to try to identify and locate the parents of the child and then look for a foster family to take care of the child. The family is selected based on an agreement signed by the foundation with the Ministry of Labor and Social Development, he said.

These steps were taken when a baby was found a few days ago near a mosque at Al-Jamia district of south Jeddah.

The source said, “If both parents or one of them has been located, the baby will be handed to them. If none of the parents could be found, the foundation will take care of the baby. This is what we are doing now with regard to the baby found near the mosque. We are taking care of the boy until we find his parents, which could take a long time.”

Once the charity receives an abandoned baby, it will be taken to the nearest pediatric hospital for a medical checkup and the case will be reported to the police.

If the foundation faces difficulty in finding information about the parents, it will contact the Ministry of Labor and Social Development to handle the case, the source explained. The ministry will officially request the foundation to take care of the child if it is aged below two years.

The foundation’s statistics show that around 500 children are found abandoned in the Kingdom in a year.