For many residents, the grinding poverty of the area surrounding the village of Abu Shuaib is heartbreaking. (AN photo by Maha Akeel)

JEDDAH, 17 May 2004 — “All this used to be green farms,” said Rahma as we drove through the miserable barren villages of Wadi Fatima, a district 65 km outside Makkah.

For many residents who grew up on a farm in the wadi, like Rahma, the neglect and grinding poverty of the area is heartbreaking. Rahma’s father and uncle were fortunate to move to Makkah over 30 years ago and make a living as government employees or businessmen; many stayed and tried to salvage their farms.

Wadi Fatima has a natural spring, which the farmers depended on to irrigate their lands. The area once supplied Makkah with most of its fruit and vegetables — its dates were said to be among the best in the country. But more than 30 years ago, the government needed to provide more drinking water to Jeddah’s growing population, so it diverted all the natural spring water from the wadi. Farmers who wanted water for their land now had to pay for it.

As Makkah opened its market to other suppliers, it became difficult for the farmers to compete. The rising cost of living meant they had to find other means of making a living and began to neglect their farms.

Passing through the central town, Jamoom, home to all the government offices, services, stores and the only health center for all 40 villages in the district, we took one of the narrow unpaved roads branching from the main street and headed toward the village of Abu Shuaib. It is like a ghost town.

It was the middle of the day, yet there was hardly any visible activity on the dusty winding roads. There were no businesses of any kind except for one unattended garage. The rest was dry farms and dilapidated homes.

Fifteen years ago, Rahma decided to help this community, especially the women, by opening her first Qur’an school for girls in this village. “Little attention is being paid to these villages even by charity organizations,” Rahma said.

Her school began with one small class without chairs, desks, water or electricity, which was only available in the villages through generators. A few years later electricity was introduced, but water is still bought by the tanks for SR70-80 — far too high a price for many of these villagers.

“Each year we graduate around 30 students, and they are all employed in the nearby villages,” said Musbah Al-Husseini, the school’s principal.

Living conditions are very hard for the families, most of which are large and have only one breadwinner, the father, usually a laborer or soldier.

Rahma has now opened some 45 schools in the villages and hires her own graduates. “We used to hire teachers from Makkah, but since we opened a teacher’s training program five years ago, most of our teachers now are the village girls who graduated from our schools,” said Alya Altamimi, director of the teacher’s training program.

“Their biggest problem is transportation,” said Altamimi. Arranging for regular and reliable transportation costs the girls SR150-300 a month, and out of an SR500-800 salary, that is a very large expense for the family. “Most of these girls are supporting their families with this salary,” she said.

As the school in Abu Shuaib expanded, it became the center of activity for the women and girls of the village, offering them more than just Qur’an classes.

The school works on three shifts — morning, afternoon and evening — for the different levels of students. It offers adult education classes for the illiterate, basic computer skills, English, and lectures on family care, religion and health.

Although most of the girls working in the schools are high school or college graduates, they could not find work in their villages and they cannot work in distant locations, often because their families won’t allow it.

“Most of the jobs available for women are in public education. A few work as nurses, but in any case these jobs are mainly in the city where the job market is already saturated,” said Etidal Al-Lehiani. She graduated seven years ago from Makkah College of Education with a degree in Islamic Studies but was unable to find a job. Rahma hired her over a year ago to supervise the Abu Shuaib School and improve its standards and activities.

She is married with four children. Her husband, who works as a teacher in a nearby village, drives her to the school from their village, which takes 15 minutes.

Mervat Al-Barakati is single, graduated from the College of Economics four years ago and works part-time at the school as an accountant and data clerk. “There is nothing here, nothing,” she said. “No jobs, no good husbands and no social life.” She is hoping to marry someone from the city.

But with high unemployment, marriage is a problem. A woman in the adult education class said she has 10 children, seven sons and three daughters, all with either a high school or college degree. Yet bar two sons all are unemployed, and they all live in one house. Her husband herds sheep. Her sons get seasonal jobs in Makkah and recently applied for jobs in the gold market but were unsuccessful.

She said she would have no problem marrying her daughter to a married man with children so long as he is decent and has a job.

By now it was early evening and girls of all ages came to the school for their extra Qur’an lessons and to play in the school’s backyard. The adult women got together for tea after their class. “This is where I spend most of my day,” said one of them. She has no husband, no children and no income, and lives alone in a house with no telephone. If she died, no one would know.

Driving out of Abu Shuaib, we saw some boys playing football in an empty lot. Other than that, there were no signs of life.