Dubai Cares and Unicef join forces to offer needy children education

Dubai: Dubai Cares and the Unicef on Wednesday announced a new partnership to boost children's access to education.

The move is part of a campaign by Dubai Cares to provide primary education to one million children in need and help contribute towards UN Millennium Development goals.

According to the Memorandum of Understanding signed by the two partners, Dubai Cares will work closely with Unicef to support education programmes in countries in Africa, Eastern Europe, South Asia and the Middle East.

Mohammad Al Gergawi, Minister of Cabinet Affairs and Chairman of The Dubai Executive Office, said: “For Dubai Cares, Unicef is a natural partner, as the UN organisation has an incredible track record of more than 60 years in implementing projects to ensure children's rights. It also has effective access to resources and expertise for coordinating large scale initiatives in a number of countries.''

Through its partnership with Unicef, Dubai Cares will help build and finance a variety of programmes related to the value chain of primary education in developing countries.

Using its expertise and presence on the ground, Unicef will support actions to build new schools and rehabilitate existing ones, improve the quality of education, and achieve gender equality.

“Education provides vital opportunities for children and helps communities break the poverty cycle,'' Ann M. Veneman, Unicef executive director, said.