Dubai: Hundreds of school students and community members will get free access to a new centre for Quran memorisation, launched as part of a charitable initiative undertaken in memory of the late Shaikh Rashid Bin Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum.
Dubai Customs on Tuesday launched the Rashid Bin Mohammad Centre for Holy Quran Memorisation at Umm Suqeim Model School in Al Safa 2, as the second campaign of their initiative ‘To Heavens, Rashid!’
The new centre, built within the school’s campus, will be open to girls from the same school and other schools from the area, including mothers and women from the neighbourhood and larger community. There will be no conditions for enrolment and it will be open free-of-charge.
Noora Saif Al Muhairi, the school’s principal, said the centre will operate in the morning from 8am to 1pm for students from both public and private schools, and in the evening from 4pm to 9pm for mothers who desire to enrol in the centre.
“Our school has currently allocated seven schoolteachers specialised in the memorisation of the Quran to teach in two different shifts, but we are already getting more volunteers. We will be separating the classes based on age groups,” she said. “Each class will have approximately 70 attendees.”
The centre has been furnished with a large number of Quran copies. Based on the demand, the centre may later start accommodating male students and other men from the community, she added.
Noora said the launch of the centre comes with a vision of fostering the culture of reading among students and supports the reading initiative launched in the UAE.
“We are in an era of innovation, and innovation only begins with reading. When students are taught to read and write, they are being equipped with the skills needed to excel in the future.”
The centre, under the patronage of Shaikha Hind Bint Maktoum Bin Juma Al Maktoum, wife of His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, was inaugurated by Shamma Al Mazroui, tMinister of State for Youth Affairs, in the presence of Lt Gen Dahi Khalfan Tamim, Deputy Chairman of Police and General Security in Dubai, and other officials from the Ministry of Education.
The initiative by Dubai Customs’ Port Rashid Operations Centre in Jebel Ali Customs Centres Management has 10 other campaigns on the agenda. It first began with an Umrah campaign in which 70 employees from Dubai Customs and Al Bayan newspaper participated last month. Other campaigns within the framework of the initiative that will follow include ‘Our charities to you’ in Shabaan, Ramadan Meer, Orphans’ cash gifts in Eid Al Fitr, ‘Suqia’, a two-month drive directed to a segment of workers in the emirate of Dubai, the Haj campaign, Eid Al Fitr clothing, Eid Al Adha clothing, and Zakat campaign, which will benefit inhabitants of remote areas across the nation.
