Dubai: The ongoing Ice Bucket Challenge that pushed thousands of residents to participate with the rest of the world to raise awareness for ALS (also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease), has been drawing mixed reactions in the UAE.

As the new phenomenon continued to go viral online, with many UAE residents videoing themselves dumping ice water on their heads and then nominating three other people to take the challenge, Gulf News decided to speak to people here about the charity event. .

While some believe that the challenge is a great way to spread awareness and raise money for the disease, others think that the idea has been transformed into negative misused hype, with many taking up the challenge without enough background on the disease itself.

Leena Sarkies, a pharmacist living in Dubai, said: “I think it’s a positive thing. When I studied ALS it was a case that not many people knew about. The fact that everybody is aware of this disease and that the media has brought enough attention to it, this has really helped the ALS association raise a lot of money.”

Sarkies believes that it somehow became a trend in the UAE that moved people away from the real cause.

“Personally, I think that a lot of the people here are doing it because everybody else is doing it. What matters the most is donating the money more than just simply dumping ice on their heads.”

Moatasim Al Khatib, an architect, 23, echoed a similar opinion: “It’s a great cause and a brilliant idea to spread awareness about the disease. The whole idea of throwing ice water on your head is to get a feeling of what those people experience, but later people abused the idea.”

Al Khatib added that one of the negative outcomes of such a challenge was related to the water being wasted.

“The water that was wasted could have been given to all the people who are in need of it. Some countries don’t have clean water, and in other countries water is being poured as a joke.”

Some like Rawan Mohammad, producer, 23, thinks that some people like her did take the challenge seriously and used the ice bucket challenge to raise awareness for more than one issue.

“I took the challenge to a whole new level and tried to raise awareness about the ALS disease and at the same time for an educational campaign for Syrian children in Lebanon. It’s a good way to experience how some people feel.”

 

Alternative forms of the Ice Bucket challenge

 

As the Ice Bucket challenge continues, here are some of the new forms it has taken to raise awareness on different issues.

 

The Rice Bucket Challenge: India’s new twist to the ice bucket challenge, where a 38-year-old woman has decided to transform the traditional ice bucket challenge into a new campaign that encourages people to donate rice for people in need.

 

The Rubble Bucket Challenge: Highlights the plight of the Palestinians and encourages people to stand in solidarity with those who lost their homes. Launched on Friday by a Jordanian comedian, it uses the same idea of using the bucket, but this time changing its content into sand or rocks to raise awareness on the ongoing conflict in Gaza

 

Toilet water: Matt Dayma, the Oscar winner, chose to use toilet water instead of clean water in the ice bucket challenge as a reminder of the scarcity of clean drinking water in some developing nations around the world.