A village in the mountainous region of Saudi Arabia is on record as having its inhabitants cut off from the rest of the world and living in the oldest backward way of life in spite of an environment rich in state-of-the-art resources.
According to the lesson website, a team of local journalists, while reporting on the village of Al-Shamia in the Al-Qahar mountainous area of Al-Rath Commissionerate in Jazan Province, said that going to Al-Shamia is a risky business.
They reached the village with great difficulty after crossing a path full of sharp rocks. We walked all day and tried our best to reach the village before sunset.
According to the newspaper report, houses in Al-Rath village are without electricity. Houses are more like sheep pen than human habitation.
Houses made of mud look like caves. There is no tradition of telephone here, no trace of basic resources far away, the people here use the method of shouting to communicate with each other,
Donkeys are used for transportation - the dialect is hard to understand, young people are ashamed to say that they are not educated,
There is a tradition of education up to primary in the gown school, those who want to get middle or secondary education have to leave the area,
An elderly man named Yahya al-Raithi said that he was suffering from incurable diseases such as diabetes, asthma and aging. His family is living below the poverty line.
His only source of income is money from his father's social sponsorship. It does not exceed 1100 riyals. They are five brothers and all of them are unemployed. One of them is disabled due to which he gets social sponsorship allowance.
All of them are living among the mountains and rocks without any facilities. Clean drinking water is not available, they use contaminated water which leads to various diseases.
Such incidents abound in Al-Raith village. I met two sisters here and both of them have been suffering from mental illness since childhood.
They do not know where they live and in what age they are living. Both live with their 100-year-old mother. His mentor Salman Al-Raithi said that the treatment of mental illness is not easy. For this, they will have to be taken to a hospital more than 60 km away, which is not an easy task.
The plight of the inhabitants of Al-Raith village seems legendary. They bury their dead near their homes. He wants the local authorities to provide him with accommodation and make arrangements for his livelihood.
