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Pak community gifts joy of reading to workers

Dubai - This initiative to encourage the habit of reading by PAD is an embodiment of the directives of the President of the UAE

 In a bid to inculcate positivity and provide a platform for learning to blue-collar workers, members of Pakistan Youth Forum of Pakistan Association Dubai (PAD), have installed a book shelf at a Transguard staffing facility in Dubai.
The trendy book shelf, which is custom-built and is shaped in the alphabets of the word READ, was officially inaugurated on Saturday while the UAE transitioned from the Year of Reading to the Year of Giving, as declared by the President, His Highness Shaikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
As one of the key elements of 'The Year of Giving' is instilling social responsibility among the youth, the book shelf is the first step towards that. Providing a platform to obtain knowledge and wisdom has always been a classic example of giving and sharing.
Dr Omar Al Muthanna, CEO of regulatory and licensing sector at the Community Development Authority Dubai, inaugurated the shelf along with officials from Pakistan Association Dubai, Pakistan Youth Forum and Transguard group.
Talking about choosing the particular labour accommodation for installing the book shelf, Ibtisam Azeem, external affairs secretary of Pak Youth Forum, said: "This particular labour accommodation has an interesting demographic distribution. About 5,000 workers are living here and we have put up this bookshelf in their lunch area as they all hang out here in their free time. Also they have a good mix of nationalities here - Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Africans, Sri Lankans - who are into security, engineering, facility management and all sorts of fields."
Praising the association's role in engaging youth in positive and productive activities, Dr Omar said: " We, at the CDA, appreciate the work and efforts of Pak Association Dubai. They have always given good support not only to Pakistanis but to all communities of Dubai.
"This initiative to encourage the habit of reading by PAD is an embodiment of the directives of the President of the UAE. What I especially like about this book shelf for workers is how it's built in such a trendy, inviting way and not in a traditional way one imagines a book shelf to be like. So it is obvious that a lot of thought and effort has gone," Dr Omar added.
Ibtisam Azeem said: "The books in the shelf will be refurbished every two weeks and we will ask them what they want. They can give us their list and we will try to get them. The book shelf contains reading material on history, Ruler of Dubai and fictions, provided by Pakistan community members. We will also soon place books of different languages such as Arabic (to learn basics of Arabic), Urdu and multiple languages."
"These books are now for them. They can take it to their room, sit here and read, put their books here in the shelf. It is left to their disposal."
Mohammed Junaid, labour accommodation coordinator at the facility, said: "We are really excited about having the book shelf here. This will help all workers here to utilise their free time in an optimum way, read up, improve their knowledge and grow career-wise."
Dr Faisel Ikram, general secretary of PAD, said: "We decided to officially inaugurate this on the last day of the year as we move ahead to the next year, which has been declared as 'The Year of Giving'. Reading provides a great deal of wisdom in all mankind, and broadens our imagination."
saman@khaleejtimes.com