Dubai: Abandoned and alone, down through time orphans have eked out their childhoods by surviving one day at a time without parents, family or a community of support.
But in the UAE, a new day is dawning for children left to fend for themselves, thanks to a visionary new concept to give these youngsters perhaps the first real home they have
ever known.
Slated to begin construction next month at Al Warqaa, The Family Village of Orphans will see an entire community rising from the desert where children will be raised in a stable environment complete with family villas and full-time caretakers.
This is part of a pioneering effort in the UAE to place children in closer, more family-oriented environments and is expected to have far-reaching results to give youngsters a better start in life.
The Dh150 million project will seek to create the holistic development of children, offering shelter, education, food, healthcare as well as psychological and emotional support.
His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, ordered the construction of The Family Village for Orphans last year and the work should be completed this year.
The project was chosen among thousands of suggestions made by the public as part of Shaikh Mohammad’s online initiative that called on people to suggest Holy Month of Ramadan 2012 initiatives.
“All orphans are our sons and daughters, and caring for them is part of our religious, moral and governmental duties. This religious occasion brings us closer to this needy segment of society,” said Shaikh Mohammad during the launching ceremony. “This segment is one that I hold very dear to my heart. Every society needs to help orphans because they require our care and attention the most.”
Vital support
In an exclusive interview with Gulf News, Tayeb Abdul Rahman Al Rais, secretary general of Awqaf and Minors Affairs Foundation in Dubai (AMAF), said the new village will provide orphans with a home to create a balanced and stable family environment offering all primary needs.
The village will cater to the psychological, mental and spiritual needs of the children.
The nurturing aspect of care will be provided by full-time female “mother” care-takers to provide round-the-clock care and “aunts” to be integrated as part of the children’s daily life.
In addition, “grandmothers” will present an additional elder layer of care and oversee order in the village, said Al Rais. The village will provide state-of-the-art education and sports facilities, full amenities and 24/7 medical care.
“This project is hope for the future. Our vision is to offer a healthy, safe and secure home for orphans in Dubai providing them with health, nutrition and most of all, love and care. It will provide a feeling of a community to help the children become active and efficient members of society,” said Al Rais.
Children living in the village will be those who have lost one or both parents through death or disappearance, abandonment or desertion, separation or loss. “We will provide children and young adults with a permanent new family, with a new 24 hours a day family village ‘mother’ to provide family-based care,” he said.
“As per the preliminary design, the family village will consist of 16 villas, each of which will accommodate up to eight children. The village will also feature a fully equipped nursery for children under three years, along with a kindergarten, an integrated recreational area and emergency medical facilities with a resident nurse.
A passion to help
The main administrative building will be located on the premises of the village “to deal with enquiries on a daily basis,” he said.
Al Rais added that the family village will provide “a true home” for orphans.
He also called on all those “with a passion to help orphans in Dubai” to participate in the humanitarian project in an endeavour to help orphans gain equal civic rights as UAE citizens.
He said AMAF is currently taking care of 2,640 minors in Dubai. Unfortunately, many children are orphaned each year, which requires a project such as a family village to offer care and to guarantee a better future for them.
One of the measures of a great society is how it cares for the less privileged — the orphaned, the disadvantaged. According to Unicef statistics, every day 5,762 children around the world become orphans.
And every day hundreds of babies are abandoned on the streets across the planet.
Less than one per cent of orphans are adopted or cared for by other relatives, seven percent of orphans are sold into human trafficking while other statistics suggest that one in 10 orphans commit suicide globally.
There are 17.8 million orphans globally who have lost both parents and are living in orphanages or on the streets and lack the care and attention required for healthy
development.
With no family, millions of orphans are at risk for disease, malnutrition, and even death.
