Dubai: Around 200 volunteers working for a Dubai charity categorised 10,000 Arabic language books for Syrian refugee children.
At a school in Dubai on Saturday, each volunteer committed to one of two four-hour shifts, as part of a programme by Dubai Cares.
The volunteers worked their way through a pile of around 50 books each, inputting title, author, year published and other details on to a spreadsheet.
All sorted reading material is part of the collection of books assembled through a national reading campaign.
“We have been witnessing more interest and participation from the UAE community following the declaration of the ‘Year of Giving 2017’,” noted Dubai Cares chief Tarek Al Gurg.
“At Dubai Cares, we are doing our best to accommodate the increasing demand for volunteering opportunities,” he added.
“Today is about the community working together to boost children’s learning potential simply by making books an integral part of their lives.”
One of the volunteers, Amna Mangoosh, said the “initiative combines two of the things I like most, which are helping people and reading”.
“I am happy to volunteer to help Syrian children receive books, as having a book is like having a gateway to new worlds.”
Over the past decade, Dubai Cares, which is part of Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives, has launched education programmes in 45 developing countries.
