Promoting UAE's heritage

What better way to preserve national identity than through a medium the youth are most familiar with — the internet. Watani.tv does just this by encouraging young people to portray the UAE's culture and heritage in a virtual world – a world that attracts thousands of youngsters every day.

Watani recently introduced the National Treasures roadshow to publicise their portal among students and encourage them to join a campaign geared towards encouraging people to participate in documenting the country's heritage.

Its most recent stop was at the Dubai Men's College. Using Watani's portal, students can upload audio, video or still images that demonstrate the UAE national identity. These documents can serve as a source of research for universities, schools, social researchers and anyone interested in learning more about the UAE.

The mission

The principal goal of this initiative is to preserve the national identity of the UAE.

"We are trying to protect our own culture and heritage," said Nasser Al Shaye'e, head of event services at Watani. "We want to make Watani the Wikipedia of the UAE. Not only do we want to preserve our identity here, but we would also like to portray our culture to the world." For the unfamiliar, Wikipedia is an online encyclopaedia onto which almost anyone can upload information.

Al Shaye'e explained that portraying the UAE's culture to the world is not the only objective of the Watani programme. The key to preserving national identity, he emphasised, is educating citizens about their own culture.

"These students are the ones who will build the country's future," he said. "It's important that we provide them with the opportunity to learn and express themselves, not only through this website, but through other channels as well."

Modern techniques

Jasem Al Qumzi, deputy executive director at Watani and business management student at DMC, explained that the best way to communicate with today's youth is to do it through means that they are most engaged with.

"To get youngsters interested about the UAE's culture, we must present it in a way that they can interact with and involve themselves with the material," he said. Watani.tv allows users to explore their creativity while providing them with a channel of expression.

Al Shaye'e said the website is not restricted to UAE nationals. Expatriates can also post material related to the country.

"Why should we stop others from exploring our culture?" Al Shaye'e said. "Allowing them to do so will only create greater awareness of our heritage on an international scope."

Learning something new

Faisal Al Saffar, a Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA) and financial services student at DMC, was one of the students who participated in the Watani.tv initiative. Journeying into the deserts of the UAE and speaking to individuals from Dubai Heritage Village, Saffar and his partner, Tarek Abdullah, created an award-winning video that portrays life in the past in the UAE.

"Being able to broadcast your work online is very rewarding," Saffar said. "Everyone has access to the web and that gives you great exposure. Not only does that give anyone interested an opportunity to learn about our culture, but it also allows everyone to recognise and appreciate what you've accomplished."

Al Saffar explained that such a portal also gives students an opportunity to be published.

"When you choose to post something on the site you learn many other things," he said. "You learn how to create videos and edit them. So it's not just about exposure, it's about learning something new."

What is www.watani.tv?

Watani, which means 'my homeland' in Arabic, is a social development programme that aims to preserve the UAE national identity and promote the practices of good citizenship in the country's multicultural society.

Considering the country's dynamic growth, Watani developed www.watani.tv, a user-driven portal designed to create an online archive of the nation's heritage, history and culture.

Users signing up to the portal can upload audio and video files or images that they have captured to reflect stories of the rich social, cultural and historical heritage of the country as well as their views and lifestyle experiences.

- For more information, log on to www.watani.tv.

What is the Watani programme?