Dubai: The Aoun Award for Community Services by Emirates Red Crescent will be open to students from private schools next year after being exclusive to public schools, an official said yesterday during the award’s ceremony for 2014.
“The award was established to instil the culture of volunteering among the Emirati youth. The competition is about giving to those in need in your community. We initially focused on public schools only; however, starting from next year we plan on including private schools as well,” said Mohammad Abdullah Al Zarouni, Manager of Emirates Red Crescent.
During the ceremony, Al Zarouni said the award is not just about encouraging students to simply donate, it is about encouraging them to look for creative ways to give back to their community, which is what the students from Al Allisili School did.
Al Allisili School pupils were awarded the first prize for their voluntary project, which aimed to raise awareness about heart diseases in their isolated community.
“We chose this topic because we live in an area called Marmoom, which is a remote area and our community does not know much about this issue since the focus of most awareness campaigns are health issues like diabetes and hypertension,” said 17-year-old student Fatima Abdullah.
To raise awareness, Fatima said volunteers from her school visited people at their homes, held seminars in schools and even went on parades in their area.
“We also raised money to purchase gifts and visit those who suffer from heart diseases in the hospital,” said Al Anoud Atiq, 16, also a student from Al Allisili School, who took part in the project.
Al Allisili was one of the eight Dubai public schools that received Emirates Red Crescent’s Aoun Award for community services.
Other schools are Sultan Al Qwais School, Nad Al Hammar School, Hessat Bint Al Murr School, Jumeirah Model School, Al Aweer Primary School, Umm Suqeim Model School and Omar Bin Khatab School.
