Young at Heart

November 25, 2010

By Dena Zedan

NEWCASTLE, United Kingdom – Saudi Aramco-sponsored students never cease to amaze those around them. No matter what task they are undertaking, they always manage to shine. AOC UK’s latest outreach event, on Oct. 28 at Newcastle, was a perfect example of this.

Seven students volunteered their time to spend the day with elderly residents of the Chirton Resource Centre, showing their talent in a number of activities that included Arabic calligraphy, where they wrote each resident’s name in Arabic on a special Saudi Aramco-branded bookmark. The group was thrilled to see how different their names looked in Arabic.
“I never thought I would be able to connect with people with such different backgrounds and age differences, but being around them has changed the way I see things They reminded me that this generation needs to be visited more often as they have a lot of experience to be shared,” said student Humoud Al Rashed.

The Chirton Resource Centre provides care and rehabilitation services for elderly persons who have recently been discharged from hospital, before they move back to live on their own. For them, this was a wonderful break to their routine, getting to engage and interact with the Saudi students who spoke to them about The Kingdom, taught them Arabic words and playing games.

“From that day, I will always cherish the many wonderful words of thanks and praise we received from the elderly. They had a great impact on myself and my friends, and one of the older gentlemen kept saying to us ‘Good lads, good lads,’" said Ahemd Al Rashdi.

“As simple as those words were, they really made us believe that we had truly made them happy,” he added.
As part of Aramco Overseas Company’s initiative to give back to the communities in which the company operates, linking outreach projects with such organizations is a rewarding way of connecting with all the different age groups and to those in need of support and attention.