Riyadh Gov. Prince Salman, who presided over the function, urged public and private organizations to support the center’s activities and projects aimed at reducing disability cases in the Kingdom.
He thanked businessmen and women as well as philanthropists for their continuous and generous support for the center. “We have to compete with one another in doing charitable work. We should also cooperate with one other in good work,” the governor said.
Prince Sultan bin Salman, chairman of PSCDR’s board of directors, thanked Prince Salman for attending the meeting despite his busy schedule following his recent return from abroad. He also thanked the participants for their support for the center, which has been working to challenge handicap with the support of modern science and technology as well as scientific research.
“It is quite encouraging that more people have joined the list of founders in order to support the center and its projects,” Prince Sultan said, adding that the center had received a number of international awards and honors in the past years. He said the next meeting would be held in Jeddah.
“Some of the center’s research works have been completed while some others are under implementation,” Prince Sultan said. “As a result of the early diagnosis program introduced by the center, we have been able to save 450 children from disability,” he said, adding that 454,787 children underwent early diagnosis. He also spoke about a project that is being carried out to enhance comprehensive accessibility for the disabled and elderly. Prince Salman launched the program and declared Riyadh as the Kingdom's first disabled-friendly city.
During that function Prince Salman signed a series of agreements for disability accessibility between PSCDR and a number of government departments. The program does not target the disabled alone but offers the development of environment for all members of society in order to reach public and private places like shopping centers, commercial institutions, schools, and mosques.
Referring to the program for helping children having learning difficulties, Prince Sultan said there about 500,000 such cases across the Kingdom. He said the learning difficulty program as well as the prize for disability research would be named after Prince Salman, in accordance with a decision taken by the founders. During the ceremony, which was held on Tuesday night, Prince Salman distributed mementoes to the sponsors and supporters of the center. The number of PSCDR’s founders has reached 113.
The function was attended by a number of princes, senior government officials and prominent businessmen including Prince Saud bin Abdullah bin Thunayan, chairman of the Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu, and Prince Faisal bin Salman, chairman of Saudi Research and Marketing Group.
