Saudi Arabia’s Red Crescent celebrates contributions from volunteers

Saudi volunteers were honored at the Red Crescent Authority's annual ceremony, Dec. 4 (SPA)
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Updated 05 December 2024
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Saudi Arabia’s Red Crescent celebrates contributions from volunteers

  • 47,946 volunteer opportunities across the Kingdom in 2024, contributing nearly 119m hours
  • Organization says women significantly outnumber men, 54 percent of volunteer base 

RIYADH: The Saudi Red Crescent Authority honored its volunteers at its annual ceremony on Wednesday, revealing statistics of financial outcomes and volunteer projects in 2024.

In the presence of key figures in the humanitarian sector, the SRCA stressed that volunteering remained central to its social mission and an integral part of Vision 2030.

The SRCA honored the efforts put into projects in the health, educational, environmental, and media sectors by some 211,703 officially registered volunteers in 2024. 

It said that 78 percent of its volunteers were under 30, with women significantly outnumbering men at 54 percent of the volunteer base, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

The SRCA recorded 47,946 volunteer opportunities across Saudi Arabia during the year, leading to nearly 119 million volunteering hours that contributed an estimated SR366 million ($97m) to the national economy. 

The SRCA also facilitated a diverse range of volunteer activities in 2024, the SPA reported.

In the ambulance services it supported 8,435 opportunities, contributing to nearly 20 million hours of work, while it created 7,965 humanitarian aid openings which led to 88 million hours, and 13,770 educational initiatives with nine million hours of volunteering.

In the environmental sector it supported 935 opportunities totaling 258,023 hours, while media activities saw 924 opportunities with 108,563 hours, and administrative roles had 5,917 opportunities adding up to 899,058 hours.

The SRCA thanked its partners in the country’s public and private sectors for promoting a volunteer culture within their organizations. It also celebrated the success of Kafo, a program designed to incentivize and reward volunteering efforts.


Saudi Arabia welcomes ceasefire agreement between Syrian Democratic Forces and Syria state

Updated 19 January 2026
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Saudi Arabia welcomes ceasefire agreement between Syrian Democratic Forces and Syria state

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia has welcomed an agreement between the Syrian state and Syrian Democratic Forces.
In a foreign ministry statement early on Monday, the Kingdom said it had welcomed an deal between Damascus and Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces that was announced by the Syrian government on Sunday.
The agreement entails merging all SDF forces into the defense and interior ministries and means that Kurdish forces will redeploy to east of the Euphrates river.
The 14-point deal would also see the immediate administrative and military handover of Deir Ezzor and Raqqa governorates.
The Syrian state would regain control of all border crossings, oil fields, and gas fields in the region, with protection secured by regular forces to ensure the return of resources to the Syrian government, while considering the special case of Kurdish areas, the state news agency SANA reported.
The ceasefire comes after intense fighting between the SDF and government troops in Aleppo. But SDF troops have now pulled back from there and the Syrian army now controls most areas east of Aleppo.
The Saudi foreign ministry statement also thanked the US for the agreement. Washington is believed to have supported brokering the ceasefire between allies SDF and the Syrian government, who they have also backed diplomatically since the fall of long-time dictator Bashar Assad.
The Syrian state announced on Friday a raft of new directives to recognize Syrian Kurds, including making their language official and bolstering other rights for the minority group.