Jeddah Rain 2011 Part III

Umm… this is probably the last part. I want to focus on the volunteers (groups and individuals) and how they dealt with the situation.

First of all, I want to direct your attention to three twitterers who did a great job. Aziz Shalan, Thamer Al-Ghamdi and Lama Sabri. Those guys are amazing in every sense of the word. I was reading their tweets one by one and I still can’t believe how active those guys were. Aziz and Thamer didn’t go to their homes until really late. They helped people on the streets, gave directions via Twitter and really had a feel for the situation. They kept asking tweeps to lead them to any people trapped and they even offered to lift up any cars for free (where others asked for SR1000) Lama joined the female volunteers who, in addition to helping their fellow male volunteers, have also reached out to females who refused to be rescued by males (you should already know the delicate situation of sex segregation in Saudi Arabia.) What I really like about Lama and her friends is that they do what they have to do without a second thought. I wish I can be like them. I mean, Lama is being harassed on a daily basis on Twitter (and I guess other places) but she still holds her ground and does what she thinks is right. I’m so proud of them.

Another case of female bravery is that of Basma Omair, executive director of Saieda Khadija bint Khowailed Center. When her driver went into a state of panic, Basma took control and drove her car, rescuing families for 10 straight hours! Don’t underestimate the power of Saudi women people! There was another case of a female who did the same last year too.

Of course people in other regions reached out to Jeddah and its people and you can find many volunteers’ groups on Facebook. Sites were up to help locate missing people and videos on YouTube were grouped in a playlist by Khaled.

Now to groups: Sabq electronic newspaper did a great job covering the incident. They even announced that the situation in Jeddah is their top priority on coverage. Though I don’t trust every article they publish but they did much better than any other electronic/local newspaper. Alriyadh Net, which is the electronic sister to Alriyadh local newspaper, did a good job too.

STC announced that all calls from their network in Jeddah are free from 26 Jan till 28 and Mobily directed all its servers and capacity there too (which explains why the internet was bad at that time) Tweeps also reported that some hotels in Jeddah opened their doors to people for free while a number of businessmen/companies donated to help families in need.

I might be missing some people/groups here. So if you like to add anything in the comments I’d be grateful~

Finally, Jeddah needs a lot of attention regarding its infrastructure and I’m sure the problem won’t be solved soon but we can’t just stand still and do nothing. The good people of Jeddah suffered long enough for something they can’t help it. The least we can do is talk about it and keep the case alive.

Part I
Part II