Bahrain Charities raise their voices

Just Imagine that 80% of the charities in the Kingdom of Bahrain do not have licenses, to raise funds for charity or even to accept donations.

This was confirmed in a recent study published in a local Arabic newspaper in Bahrain, in which 48 charity societies have participated, representing 46% of all the 104 charities.

The study says that 44% of charities requests for licenses to raise money were refused after a waiting period of 6 months, 34% were without a license for one to two years and 22% with no license for a month to 6 months.

The main problem began with the issue of Decree No. 21 of the year 2013 in which all societies, including charity ones, were obliged to request a license to be issued through the Ministry of Labor and Social Development, when raising money or receiving donations.    

The ministry issued procedures and memorandums to reflect the contents of the decree but these were seen to be “too bureaucratic” by these societies.  

However, the societies did adhere to these regulations but un-fortunately,  the issue of these licenses is either delayed for more than 6 months in many cases or completely rejected with no reasons given. 

Many complaints and articles were published in the local Arabic newspapers demanding the ministry to review these procedures,  in order to allow some degree of leniency in dealing with these charities.  Unfortunately,  no positive effects.

After this study was published, HRH Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa the Prime Minister kindly ordered the authorities through a statement issued by the Cabinet of Ministers asking to speed up the issue of these long pending requests for licenses especially during the month of Ramadan.  However, until now such societies are still awaiting a quick action.

The societies are demanding a permanent solution, although the month of Ramadan is the most important period for fund raising and receiving donations.   They also say that such regulations should not have been imposed on them in the first place, since when they were originally established, they were authorized by law to be able to raise funds as it is the core and heart of their charity business.”

This problem has been very badly affecting the important role of these charity societies in helping pure and modest poor families, as well as assisting in Bahrain’s social development work.