Abdullah Al-Jamili

Al-Madinah

 

Through his charity foundation, Bill Gates recently announced a donation of $50 million to combat Ebola. Before that he donated $10 million to finance scientific research aimed at finding a treatment for this fatal epidemic.



Whenever I read or hear about the charitable donations of the businessmen in the West, my mind focuses on what our wealthy men have done for their country in respect of development projects or social responsibility programs.



If we imagined a group of Saudi businessmen establishing medical centers in each town or village bearing their names or the names of their establishments, we would have tens or hundreds of model medical centers in our country.



If we imagined a group of billionaires establishing high-class buildings for government schools, the rented houses hosting many public schools would have gone forever.



If a group of these immensely rich Saudis spent money to assist young Saudi men and women get married we would have thousands of them happily married and well settled. If the very wealthy Saudis established mobile kidney dialysis centers, built housing units for the low-income citizens, financed projects that would take advantage of the young energies and the experiences of the retirees…if, if.



There are a lot of “ifs” and dreams of the wealthy Saudis doing their duties toward their homeland and compatriots and shouldering their social responsibilities.



The list of “ifs” will endlessly go on and on. The “if” dreams could be easily realized on the ground when the rich citizens shoulder their social responsibilities toward their country and people.



If there were also a government department to design charity projects and programs and market them among the rich citizens offering government facilities to those who would implement them, we would have many useful welfare projects in our country. Some may argue that such programs are the responsibility of the government.



I will not totally disagree with them. However, I will openly tell them that in all countries of the world, even the rich ones, there are great welfare contributions by businessmen. The social responsibility programs have become a duty not only for businessmen but also all the banks and big companies.