Business & Money | Sunday 6 November, 2016 4:12 am |

Saudi Aramco and Takaful Charity Foundation (Takaful) on Tuesday started distributing some 20,000 tablet PCs loaded with educational applications to students in the Kingdom’s Southern border cities and towns, Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.

The tablets, known as Knowledge Gift 2, are being distributed in partnership with the Saudi Post and several companies including Tatweer Education, Sadara, Haliburton and Huawei Tech Investment Saudi Arabia Co. Ltd, apart from the Saudi Arabian Boy Scouts Association.

Director of Public Relations at Saudi Aramco, Nasser Abdulrazzaq Al-Nafisi, said Saudi Aramco launched the initiative for the second year consecutively in cooperation with Takaful Charity Foundation and other partners.

This is part of several initiatives launched by the company five years ago to enrich the knowledge of two million young men and women. The objective is also to contribute to the dissemination of knowledge among the young.

The initiative is an extension and development of the “school bag” initiative, through which the company has provided school bags to schoolchildren all over the Kingdom for the past 12 years.

The initiative, with the contributions of Saudi Aramco employees, promotes the spirit of patriotism. It also boosts the important role being carried out by Saudi Aramco employees eager to address issues facing members of society.

Al-Nafisi said the number of tablets distributed within the Knowledge Gift 2 initiative this year surpassed those distributed in 2015 by 7,000 tablets. Last year, 13,000 tablets were distributed. In total, employees’ contributions reached SR2.16 million, hence bringing total donations from the employees to SR4.32 million.

Meanwhile, the Secretary-General of Takaful Charity Foundation Muhammad Al-Oqeely said that the initiative comes is an example of constructive partnerships that serve general education male and female students in the Kingdom.

He further said that Takaful has participated in the Knowledge Gift 2 initiative by providing a number of tablets at a cost of SR2.5 million. It contributed to specifying the students who would benefit from the Knowledge Gift 2 by using the Takaful comprehensive database that relies on official and precise information from government sources.

Al-Oqeely added that Takaful has supervised the delivery of the devices to the beneficiaries at 18 distribution centers belonging to five education administrations in the Southern border regions. He expressed thanks to Saudi Aramco and all the partners in Knowledge Gift 2 project for their efforts.

He also thanked Takaful employees in the Education Administrations and the Saudi Arabian Boy Scouts Association for their efforts in distributing the devices.

Meanwhile, Tatweer Education Company contributed to the initiative by loading the tablets with the interactive educational content. This included a number of electronic applications supporting education curricula in the country.

As to Sadara and Haliburton, they made cash donations to the initiative. Huawei provided 3,000 tablets. Saudi Post took the initiative to distribute the tablets to 18 distribution centers with support from the Saudi Arabian Boy Scouts Association, which formed a team comprising 600 scouts to participate in the distribution of the devices. Fifty percent of the tablets will be distributed to schoolboys and the remaining 50 percent to schoolgirls.

The list of cities and towns where the tablets will be distributed includes Jazan, Samta, Abu Areesh, Ahad Al-Masarha, Al-Aridha, Abha, Khamis Mushayt, Ahad Rufaidah, Yadmah, Habona, Sharourah, Sarat Obeidah and Al-Harjah.