Residents come together to rebuild Palestine

Dubai

Education provides us with basic knowledge and leads to enlightenment. It lays the foundation of a stronger nation. It is unfortunate that today, the children of Gaza, Palestine, do not only have to face a lack of educational infrastructure but also basic stationery items required for school.

Dubai Cares launched a campaign to supply these children with school kits with basic educational supplies to help continue their education. The campaign took place between January 8 and 11, 2015. As a regular volunteer with Dubai Cares, I received an email that called out to residents to volunteer at the community event site. Being a student, I understand how education can change lives and I immediately opted to spend my afternoons at the venue. Registrations also took place on the site.

At the location, there were 10 lanes set up as working stations. With the help of a checklist of 16 items, the volunteers packed a backpack with the stationery present on the rack and passed it onto the Quality Checking (QC) Team.

As a volunteer leader, I was given the responsibility of QC. Our team ensured that each backpack included the correct number of notebooks, sketchbooks, geometry kits, calculators, pencil cases for pens, pencils, erasers, sharpeners, rulers, crayons and sketch pens. We also ensured that this stationery was in the best condition before we passed the bags to the packing team.

They packed 21 school bags in each cardboard box. At the end of the day, these cartons were transported to a warehouse. From there, they would be shipped to Palestine, via Jordan.

I met Bahaa Hamade, the PR and Events Manager of Dubai Cares, who said: “We have received a great response from the people of UAE. The goal was to pack 50,000 school bags over four days.”

Dubai Cares later announced that this goal was achieved within two days.

I interacted with other student volunteers present at the venue. We all believe that giving is caring.

When asked about their views on this community event, Devna Subramani and Ashana Pandey said: “We love the atmosphere of this place. It makes us feel like we’re contributing for a bigger cause.”

The representatives of a large corporate group said, “Its been a humbling experience and we have volunteered wholeheartedly. All of us have spared a few hours from work to enjoy this initiative. We love this beautiful spirit.”

Reading reports about homeless or poor children wandering the streets of war-stricken countries in search of food or a place to live, affects me on a daily basis. I feel the urge to help these children and am grateful to Dubai Cares for this wonderful initiative. It has given UAE residents, coming from different cultural backgrounds, a chance to collaborate and join hands for a bigger cause and a better future for deserving children.

— The reader is a student in Dubai.

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