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Dubai Cares initiative to include schoolchildren

DUBAI — The Dubai Cares initiative has been extended to include schools and school children, and Shaikh Mayed bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum will lead the Dubai Cares School Charity Programme, it was announced yesterday at the Dubai World Trade Centre.

The campaign will encourage Dubai’s schoolchildren to raise funds to sponsor primary education for one million children in seven poor countries.

Shaikh Mayed described the School Charity Programme as an “opportunity for Dubai’s children to shape a better future for those who in the years to come will be their partners in the global village.”

“This is a campaign that will touch the hearts and minds of the children of Dubai,” he observed. “After all, it sets out to help those they understand best — their contemporaries and peers, children like themselves, but without the benefits, privileges and advantages of living in one of the most successful cities of the modern world,” he added.

Shaikh Mayed recently visited Comoros Islands to tour the site where a school is to be built. He said: “By building schools and actually making a difference on the ground, Dubai Cares is affirming Dubai’s commitment to the underprivileged. It is also a statement to Dubai’s children’s commitment to open up access to education, playing their part in building a future of shared interests free from the debilitating ignorance, want and envy that erodes trust and leads to conflict.”

The campaign specifically sets out to build new school facilities, renovate/rehabilitate existing abandoned and/or damaged school premises, distribute school supply materials, award scholarships, coordinate feeding programmes at schools, conduct annual medical check-ups for students and teachers and organise training workshops that benefit teachers.

The Minister of Education, Dr Hanif Hassan, underlined the keen interest of the ministry to coordinate with the Dubai-based Knowledge and Human Resources Development Authority (KHDA) to inculcate the “voluntary culture” and the participation of students in supporting people at home and abroad. A joint task force has been set up to collect donations from both government and private schools, he revealed. This task force comprises officials from the education departments and education zones.

Dr Abdulla Al Karam, chairman of the Board of Directors and director general of KHDA, told Khaleej Times that schools, students, faculty and staff would be actively involved in the campaign. “Schools will be given kits to help them in the campaign. Voucher systems will be one of the activities through which children can raise funds. Every school will have a coordinator who will distribute these vouchers to students and guide them. We want schools to come up with their own activities for the campaign. The idea here is to encourage children to master the art of giving and creativity.”

KHDA officials will also be visiting schools in the next 10 days to oversee the activities.

Running throughout the Holy Month of Ramadan, Dubai Cares was launched on September 19 by His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, to raise funds to provide primary education to underprivileged children across the world.