The world’s childhood must-have “Alhasalah” (Arabic for piggy bank) has transformed through Saudi community efforts into an initiative for raising awareness on monetary management, investment and savings.
Alhasala initiative won first place in the King Khalid Development Partners Award.
Saad Al Hamoudi, who founded the initiative back in 2009, explains that it is one of the most important Saudi voluntary works when it comes to raising the public’s monetary awareness and promoting savings and rationalization of consumption.
Those two principles are in line with the Kingdom's national transformation program Kingdom Vision 2030.
The initiative aims to increase savings of individuals and families by 6 to 10 percent, Hamoudi told Asharq Al-Awsat.
“Alhasala initiative is active in various social networks, in addition to setting up countless workshops and exhibitions with a grassroots audience.”
“Over 3,000 children have been trained so that young people can get used to saving since childhood,” he added.
According to Hamoudi, some 800 men and women were trained on raising awareness about family saving plans and cost-cutting.
At least 40 informative videos simplifying fiscal management were released in different languages by Alhasala’s team.
Asked about the future plan of the initiative, Hamoudi reveals hopes for going fully into e-training so that the program reaches more people, and possibly regionally.
Awareness podcasts and films are covered by the initiative as well.
Prince Faisal bin Khalid, of the Asir region and chairman of the King Khalid Award Committee, announced that the initiative won 42 percent of the total votes in a mass email voting mechanism through the King Khalid Foundation website.
He said that the Foundation embraced prosperity by activating the role of the development partners, as well as empowering them through social investment and building capabilities to ensure the emergence of a Saudi community with equal opportunities.
There are intentions to expand the competition for the award beyond Saudi borders to include fellow countries such as the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Bahrain and Kuwait, he added.
“Adam Campaign” came in second place with 29 percent of the total votes. Launched in 2014, the initiative raises public awareness, among youth in particular, on coexistence and tolerance with the objective of curbing racism and extreme practices and emboldening the creation of inclusive and peaceful societies.
