Abu Dhabi: The annual meeting of the Board of Directors of the Emirates Foundation was attended and chaired by Shaikh Abdullah Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Chairman of Emirates Foundation, with the work of the foundation praised by Shaikh Abdullah.
Board members highlighted a number of successful initiatives carried out this year, such as Takatof’s engagement with 400 youth at EXPO Milan, as well as this year’s Think Science Fair which received 10,000 visitors. The meeting also highlighted the SANID volunteering programmes, which was the winner of this year’s Sharjah Volunteer Award.
Speaking at the meeting, Shaikh Abdullah said, “Our venture philanthropy model, which involves incubation, piloting, scaling up and then spinning off of programmes is proving very successful and we have a lot to be proud of. Our focus and business-based approach whereby we are essentially creating social enterprises, is really bearing fruit but there is still a lot to be done.”
“Our mission is to guide, inspire and empower the UAE youth and our work is about ensuring that each one of our programmes is delivering high impact, is run effectively and is cost-effective. We have a proven model and various ways of supporting young people but we still need to scale up so that all young people in the UAE have access to guidance.”
Shaikh Abdullah also thanked and praised the support received from the private sector, “I look forward to seeing many more private sector companies offering their support in the future, to help us realise our vision of supporting and empowering youth,” he said.
The annual meeting was also attended by Shaikh Sultan Bin Tahnoun Al Nahyan, Managing Director of the Emirates Foundation, and Shaikha Lubna Al Qasimi, Minister of International Cooperation and Development, as well as other board members.
