Members of the community in Riyadh Al Khabra are not used to staying at their homes for extended periods of time due to their work duties, whether it is going to work, the farm or managing a local business, or simply going out with family and friends for outdoor activities. Upon the implementation of a quarantine in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, people were put through a once in a lifetime experience. Initially, the curfew’s duration was between 7 PM—6 AM, and then a full curfew was declared. Therefore, residents were unable to leave their homes without the authority’s permission, and even then, excursions were only allowed only for specific purposes and during certain times, meaning that people were left with a lot of time on their hands.

The idea behind the initiative was for people to take advantage of their spare time at home, in cooperation with the city of Riyadh Alkhabra and youth committees.

The initiative sought to give people the opportunity to take advantage of their spare time by performing beneficial activities, which allowed for an improvement of the collective psychological state of residents and the prevention of toxic thinking caused by excess free time during social isolation. The idea was to point out the importance of spending spare time in a beneficial and productive way.

The initiative tackles themes pertinent to low-income migrant workers, physical activity, mental health, schools and education and the workplace. Vulnerable populations are also addressed by the initiative, as per the inclusion of the poor and low-income migrant workers. The initiative was also funded by donors, and it was supervised by his excellency the governor of Riyadh Alkhabra, Chairman of the main committee and he was interacting with the initiative via his Twitter account.

The initiative aimed to encourage residents to spend their free time productively, and it propounded the below objectives:

• Invest your time at home by enrolling in online courses, free of charge.
• Invest your time at home by reading books (the digital library of prince Faisal bin Misheal (reading is life.)
• Invest your time at home by reading the Qur’an.
• Invest your time at home by learning new skills.
• Invest your time at home by watching documentaries.
• Invest your time at home by exercising indoors.
• Invest your time at home by planning for the future.

The apparent success of the initiative was measured by the low number of confirmed cases and the absence of deaths.

In terms of post-pandemic prospects, this initiative provided people with the means to prevent the spread of COVID-19, and it highlighted the importance of cleanliness and proper nourishment. This initiative also showed people how to manage their time and spend it productively, as per the below results:

• More than 18 tweets have been published about the initiative.
• More than 10 designs were made for the initiative.
• More the 11 links have been shared about different initiative elements (courses, skills); the links contained hundreds of free books that have been accessed 15699 times according to the Riyadh Alkhabra Healthy Cities Program Twitter account.