Dubai A mission to quench the thirst of the less privileged may sound like tall order but all it takes is sparing a little thought for them. The rest falls in place. Ask two Pakistani housewives Asma Awan, 37, and Taskeen Ahsan, 42, and they will tell you just how.
From time to time Asma and Taskeen have done their bit to distribute food and water bottles to workers in Dubai. But this year, their little acts evolved into something much bigger.
On May 17, Asma fixed a water cooler in front of her villa in Arabian Ranches.
“Immediately workers around the community started using the cooler. Some drank to simply quench their thirst, some collected the water in bottles to wash their face and wet their scarves in the heat. Seeing all this just touched my heart and Taskeen and I immediately decided to install more such coolers in Dubai,” said Asma.
In the last two months, together, the friends have set up 58 water coolers at a cost of about Dh84,000 across common areas of residential communities, construction sites and mosques in Dubai and Sharjah.
“We have installed five coolers at security gates in Victory Heights community. Similarly, we have installed coolers in Arabian Ranches, Green Community and Motor City. We have put 30 coolers in the Arabian Ranches phase II construction site. This is in addition to coolers that the site already has in place. Plus, we have reached out to four mosques in Dubai and Sharjah. As you can see, the response to our endeavour has been overwhelming,” said Taskeen.
So how has their water cooler project grown so fast?
“We have put in a considerable amount of effort to reach out to community managers, contractors and other relevant authorities. Getting permission has not been easy. But we have strived to get it,” said Asma.
“For example, in Arabian Ranches we have installed three coolers in the community’s common areas. For this, we went around the development with Emaar’s community managers to find the best suitable spots to fix these coolers,” said Taskeen.
“We had to find places where water and electricity connections were available. All this required co-ordination from our end to deal with relevant authorities,” she added.
A 25-gallon Super General water cooler costs Dh1,250, while an 85-gallon Super General water cooler costs Dh1,950.
Asma said they have received enormous support from individuals and community residents. “We started a Facebook page three weeks ago called Water Cooler Project Dubai and we already have 500 members in it. It has been gratifying to see how people have been calling us to ask how they can contribute to our endeavour. One lady asked us if she could help us start a website which I thought was really sweet,” said Asma.
Taskeen said going forward the friends are planning to set up their own charity programme. “We have already started working on that. We should hear something after Eid. The last two months have shown us that nothing is impossible to achieve,” she said.
