Dubai: Al Noor Training Centre has appealed to members of the community to contribute towards improving the quality of life of special needs children through the Child Sponsorship Programme they have launched.
The sponsorship programme can be one way of transforming the lives of children with special needs and enable them to realise their full potential in society by providing them training through a range of professional disciplines.
The centre accommodates 270 children from 35 different nationalities of varied income backgrounds, but the statistics of the income background is stark. More than 25 per cent of the families are unable to pay the highly subsidised fee due to financial challenges.
Through the sponsorship programme, these children will be able to get holistic training — special education, physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech and language therapy, psychological services, and vocational training. They will also have classes in IT, assistive technology, sports, music, arts and craft.
Isphana Al Khatib, Director of Al Noor Training Centre, appealed to residents to take up the noble cause and said, “Sponsoring a child is a social investment, through which one ensures that special needs children not only receive love and encouragement, but are appropriately trained, educated and empowered to positively impact society.”
The annual cost of training a child is approximately Dh65,000, but the fees charged is set at Dh40,000, which is an almost 40 per cent subsidy on the total cost of training. The subsidy of Dh25,000 offered to all children accrues to the already existing deficit.
Being a non-profit organisation, fundraising is an ongoing requirement for Al Noor to cover the operational cost of the centre. The categories of sponsorship are Dh65,000 for comprehensive (full) sponsorship, which covers tuition fees and subsidy, Dh40,000 for tuition fees sponsorship and Dh25,000 for subsidy sponsorship.
Al Noor seeks the support of individuals and corporates to come forward and partner with them in its mission of providing quality professional training to children with special needs through this programme.
