Dubai: Al Maktoum Foundation in Dubai (AMF) has announced on the occasion of the Emirati Humanitarian Day (Ramadan 19) the launch of a new initiative to help children with special needs.
The programme, being implemented in partnership with Emirates Autism Society (EAS), will encourage mainstream UAE schools to compete in integrating students with special needs.
The school that demonstrates the most progress in this regard will be allocated a Dh200,000 cash prize to be spent on support programmes for education and care of students with special needs.
Starting this year, the Emirati Humanitarian Day will be an annual celebration of the welfare efforts by UAE-based organisations, in honour of the philanthropic spirit and example set by Shaikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the “Father of the Nation.”
It will be held on Ramadan 19 each year in the Islamic Hijri calendar, which means it will fall about 11 days earlier every year in the solar or Gregorian calendar. Ramadan 19 this year corresponds to July 28.
Shaikh Zayed passed away on Ramadan 19 in the Hijri year 1425, which corresponds to November 2, 2004.
The initiative for students with special needs is “on top of the priority list as education is the right for all members of the community”, the AMF said in a statement.
AMF Board Member Mirza Hussain Al Sayegh told Gulf News: “Shaikh Zayed, may God bless his soul, has done so much for the community. This [AMF-EAS] initiative is a small token of appreciation towards following in his spirit of humanitarianism. We hope to nominate the initiative in the Shaikh Hamdan Award for Academic Excellence in 2014.”
EAS President Fatima Al Matroushi added: “This initiative is open to all schools in all the seven emirates. It will be an encouragement for the schools to do more. By law, we must include children with special needs in mainstream schools, but this is not very much in practice.”
