Humanitarian Day today; Dubai Cares lauds role of volunteers

In commemoration of the World Humanitarian Day today, Dubai Cares said it salutes the role of humanitarian workers and their work in facilitating “positive change” around the globe.

The organisation also highlighted education as a major contributor for gaining awareness on key global issues, and an important factor for facilitating a collective drive towards finding solutions for problems such as poverty.

Tariq Al Gurg, chief executive officer of Dubai Cares, said, “With programmes in over 35 countries, Dubai Cares largely relies on a dedicated team of humanitarian workers to implement projects effectively and in various communities. Humanitarian workers are the backbone of our organisation, and their tenacity and optimism has helped us make significant contributions towards breaking ... the barriers to education in the developing world and steadily move towards ... universal primary education. We are grateful for their commitment every single day.”

Dubai Cares works in developing countries through integrated development programmes that help in identifying and remedying underlying causes which prevent children’s access to quality primary education.

Highlighting the UAE’s role as a global humanitarian aid provider, Al Gurg said: “The UAE community collectively believes in empowering people through education. Here in the UAE, we enjoy the liberty to pursue and achieve our ambitions as we have strong foundations safeguarding our rights, security and prosperity. Moreover, education has helped us develop a global perspective on progress and highlighted how progress and prosperity are linked to the development of the international community.”

Dubai Cares is now reaching more than 10 million children in 35 developing countries. Some of the organisation’s projects include building and renovating over 1,500 classrooms, providing more than 1,300 water wells and potable water sources, and constructing over 3,400 latrines in schools.

Dubai Cares provides food daily to more than 504,000 schoolchildren, training over 38,000 teachers, and distributing over 2.1 million books written in local languages.