Dubai Cares charity drive widens its horizon

Dubai: The second phase of the Dubai Cares charity campaign, with its focus on volunteering, was launched on Sunday by His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

After a successful run for more than a year and exceeding all expectations, Dubai Cares has moved several notches higher by having Dubai residents donate not just in financial terms but also in terms of their time.

An announcement was made to this effect by Reem Ebrahim Al Hashemi, Minister of State and Chairperson of the Dubai Cares board of directors, at an event held at the Al Maktoum School for Boys here yesterday.

"What began as a personal initiative of His Highness Shaikh Mohammad has evolved into the largest charitable establishment, solely devoted to improving primary education around the world," she said.

The objective of the second phase is to instill a sense of global responsibility among residents of the UAE to reach out to those in need. The campaign is designed to ensure people of all ages and backgrounds have the opportunity to contribute to the society.

A full house

The room at the Al Maktoum School for Boys was packed with government officials, academics, officials, businessmen, journalists, as well as young pupils from various Dubai schools.

After the announcement by Reem, Shaikh Mohammad was seen speaking to some of the young school pupils present there.

Dubai Cares' previous launches were held in hotel ballrooms.

The Million Book Challenge, an ambitious plan to allow pupils in Dubai to make donations of one million books to those in need, was also announced.

The pupils will achieve this by reading one million books collectively over a two-week period. One book will be donated to the needy by Dubai Cares for every book read by a Dubai pupil.

Students between the ages of 3 and 14 are being encouraged to take part in the drive. The books purchased by Dubai Cares will be managed by Room to Read, an international organisation that builds lib-raries and schools in developing countries, as well as other Arab organisations.

The campaign has also offered residents and visitors the opportunity to sponsor books for the needy for Dh10 through the Dubai Cares website or through participating stores.

Reem reviewed the prog-ress of the campaign and outlined the next phase, which will focus on local, global and virtual volunteering.

The local programme allows residents to volunteer in UAE schools, while the global programme offers 10 education-based programmes in Cambodia, Zanzibar and Socotra, Yemen.

The virtual programme offers the opportunity to share time and expertise to support organisations via the internet.

At a glance

- Dubai Cares was launched in September 2007 by His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, in an effort to allow Dubai residents to raise funds to provide primary education to one million children in developing countries.

- By the end of the campaign, Dh1.7 billion was raised and was doubled by a donation from Shaikh Mohammad.

- In a little more than one year the charity has been able to target four times the initial objective of one million children, having launched programmes in Bangladesh, Bosnia, Chad, Comoros Islands, Djibouti, Maldives, Mauritania, Nigeria, Pakistan, Palestine, Sudan and Yemen.

- Room to Read focuses on building schools and libraries in developing countries as well as developing children's literature in local languages by partnering with local communities.

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