Emirates Foundation sets new goals

Abu Dhabi: Nearly three years into its creation and the Emirates Foundation has reached remarkable successes and has ambitious future goals, says CEO Peter Cleaves.

The Emirates Foundation was created with a vision of implementing strategic projects that benefit the lives of people in the UAE. One of its main focuses is the youth.

"We saw there was a huge energy among the youth but they had no way to express that," Cleaves says.

The foundation responded to this challenge by creating Takatof, shoulder-to-shoulder in Arabic, an initiative to recruit and utilise volunteers in acts of service to the community with social responsibility as one of its pillars.

"There is no way we would have imagined that 3,000 youth would have joined. It has been a resounding response," says Cleaves.

The youth were involved in rehabilitating schools and were a major source of aid to the communities around the world hit by natural disasters. As the concept of volunteerism was not socially popular, the foundation has also worked with the private sector to increase exposure of this army of youth that are willing to help at no cost.

Women's issues

"As much as we have worked to recruit volunteers we have prepared organisations to utilise these volunteers," Cleaver says.

Aside from youth volunteering, the foundation has implemented programmes dealing with women's issues, career resources for youth, scholarships, science and technology, arts and culture, environment, education and public awareness. The one theme that ties all these ambitious projects together is "to achieve emirate leadership for national advancement that engages the private sector in a manner that is consistent with the traditions and values of the country," Cleaves, a 30-year expert in the area of foundations and philanthropy, says.

To utilise the public sector and to help in building a sense of national unity, the foundation has been primarily funded by businesses. "We are currently working on encouraging more involvement than just finances from the private sector. We aim to be more transparent and accessible as whole," Cleaves says.

With millions of dollars in their budget, the foundation sees this money only as the fuel that will utilise the human energy. "Philanthropy is providing support for individuals and institutions, permitting them to achieve and excel in a sustainable way for the benefit of themselves and society," says Cleaves.

Serving all of the UAE, the foundation was the vision of the late Shaikh Zayed and was established on April 12, 2005 by General Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces.

Seven months ago, Cleaves arrived from the United States to help provide leadership in the area of philanthropy.

"My goal here really is to prepare for my successor. I am only the CEO. The next level of leadership is all Emiratis," Cleaves says.