Magical Smiles UAE: How a group of expat families brings joy to workers
Volunteers, including children, gift meals and blankets; help organise free health checks
Dubai: A volunteering team in Dubai comprised of expat families, including children, has spread cheer among hundreds of blue-collar workers by organising a free medical camp and gifting them meals and blankets.
Magical Smiles UAE Team, registered with the Community Development Authority (CDA) in Dubai, ran the camp for around 300 workers at a workers’ accommodation in Sonapur (Muhaisnah) recently.
Today, January 13, the group is holding another camp to distribute free meals and blankets to around 200 women workers.
At the previous camp, workers received free medical check-ups from volunteers from Noor Al Shefa Medical Centre. Meanwhile the distribution of biryani meals, cupcakes and new blankets was carried out by the volunteers of Magical Smiles UAE.
The co-founders of the team, president Tara Shah Khan; vice-president Lokesh Mishra, and team leaders Tanveer Khan and Rakesh Kaul, led the nearly 50 volunteers who included child volunteers Reshma Shah, Fatema Khan, Zahra Khan, Keshav Kaul, and Sneha Mishra.
“All the volunteers of Magical Smiles UAE team, including child volunteers aged three to 10, continuously volunteered for the six-hour event. We have done a lot of activities where we have supported 500 to 1,000 labourers earlier. Due to the nature of the medical camp, we had to bring down the number of workers this time,” said Tara.
Instilling values
She said the families associated with the group have made it a point to involve their children in their activities to instil the values of volunteerism and community service from a young age.
“It is important for our kids to learn how to be kind and humble towards those who do so much for us and our society. I have been taking my daughter Zahra to our events since she was two. Now she is three and she loves to be a part of our activities. The presence of the child volunteers also makes the workers happy,” Tara added.
She said the spirit of the volunteers is to show the true meaning of having dedication and love towards humanity and the community. “We are proud that our young volunteers choose to participate in volunteering rather than playing on their devices. We are also proud that we received one of the best volunteering teams’ award on International Labour Day from the CEO of CDA.”
Tara added: “Spreading smiles is our motto and we have always tried our best to treat our blue-collar brothers with food donations on various occasions. We organise charity events every month. But this time, we wanted to do something different, a free medical camp along with good meals.
“I want to express our big thanks to CDA, the Dubai Health Authority and the Noor Al Shefa team for making this dream a reality. We are also grateful to officials Ahmed Al Zaabi and Khaled Nawab Al Bloushi, president of the Nabdh Al Emarat volunteering team, for their support and guidance.”