Students who participated in the exhibition. (AN photo)

JEDDAH: Maysaa Al-Khayyat has an idea for an eco-friendly mosquito repellant made from the Neem tree. Shaymaa Al-Ghamdi came up with an anti-fungal cream made of only natural ingredients. Three young Saudi women got together and drew up a plan on how to deal with Jeddah’s notorious lake of raw sewage.

These were some of the ideas that have come out of the King Abdul Aziz and his Companions Foundation for Giftedness and Creativity’s program entitled “Natural Treasures”, aimed at high-school age Saudi girls from Jeddah.

The foundation’s core mission is sponsoring and nurturing young, gifted Saudis through financial and moral support. A closing ceremony of the monthlong Natural Treasures took place on Thursday, which included displays and proposals by the teenage girls.

Al-Khayyat, one of the 46 girl students that participated, explained her proposal for a natural mosquito repellant. “The pesticide is extracted from the Neem tree, scientifically known as Azadirachta indica. It has no side effects,” she said. “The Neem tree has already been tested as effective in keeping mosquitoes away. I thought we could make a product for cars and houses, a spray that works both as an air freshener and a repellant.”

Al-Khayyat also joined with Lujain Gashgari and Atheer Zahran to develop a way to turn Musk Lake — Jeddah’s main dumping ground for raw, untreated sewage that poses a threat to the local aquifer — into gray water that could be used for agricultural purposes.

“The idea of the project is to suck the water into a purifier,” said Gashgari. “Then use ultraviolet light powered by solar panels to sterilize the water. Finally, the water could be piped from a reservoir to local farms and gardens.”

Najia Al-Zanbagi, the program director for Natural Treasures, who is also an associate professor in the Department of Biology at the King Abdulaziz University’s (KAU) College of Science, said they organized the event around the idea of sustainable development.

“We had three units: ‘Medicines From Nature,’ ‘To Nature We Return’ and ‘Peace With Nature,’” she said.

The program included workshops where young ladies learned public speaking techniques and how to hone their English-speaking skills. They were also afforded the opportunity to develop contacts with professionals, academics and peers.

“The foundation carried all of the expenses, and the KAU labs and classrooms was where it all started and ended,” said Al-Zanbagi. “We showed the girls how to register their inventions for patents at the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST). We are also going to stay in touch with all girls so hopefully we could help them to reach something in the future.”

Gashgari said her experience with the program was great. “I learned new things and gained knowledge,” she said. “I visited a water-sterilizing factory. I improved my English because all research had to be done in English. And I made new friends.”

Asmaa Rasheedi participated in the “To Nature We Return” unit of the program. She developed a proposal for a line of skin whitening creams made only from natural ingredients. “We added natural perfumes to give it a nice smell,” she added.

Shaymaa Al-Ghamdi, a 17-year-old student who participated in the “Medicines from Nature” unit, made an all-natural fungicide to treat athlete’s foot.

“I made the medicines with natural ingredients, from cinnamon, chamomile, mustard seeds and olive oil,” she said.

Suzanne Aghil Baaghil, a scientific affairs executive at Jamjoom Pharmacy, praised the students’ ideas.

“The ideas are so inspiring,” she said. “I really appreciate the people behind them. Some of the ideas are very interesting and novel,” said Baaghil. “Maybe they should continue summer training and present their ideas to professionals in the future.”

Abeer Al-Haddad, a psychology instructor at KAU, said that the girls’ main problem was a lack of adequate communication skills.

“Some of the girls were extremely shy,” she said. “With time, we broke borders even between the instructors and the students. We wanted to improve their self confidence through group discussions.”

Al-Haddad added that she observed progress in students’ sense of self-confidence as the program progressed.