Dubai: Three Jordanian expat brothers are raising money for the Beirut Explosion Emergency Relief fund by posting maths and chess videos.
The brothers — Talal, Fawaz and Leyth Sharaf — hope to raise Dh10,000 in the next three weeks. So far the brothers have collected Dh6,000.
The thought on charity
On August 4, Talal, 16, a Year 11 student at Jumeirah College and the oldest sibling, watched images of Lebanon’s destruction after the explosion. His brothers joined him a little later. Watching the horrific impact of the explosion, the brothers felt compelled to help.
And so the brothers decided to run a campaign to raise funds for the Red Crescent — Beirut Explosion Emergency Fund through YallaGive, a licensed online donation and crowdfunding platform.
“We regularly get involved in charity and humanitarian work. Previously, we have been involved in distributing water to workers in Dubai, purchasing gifts for cancer patients in Jordan and participating in the 10 million meals campaign for covid-19,” said Talal.
“This time it was for the Lebanon cause. We decided to fundraise for the Red Crescent’s Beirut Fund especially because the horrific explosion in Beirut occurred in the midst of COVID-19,” he said.
Leyth, 11, Year 6 student at King’s School in Al Barsha, added that he has a lot of Lebanese friends and he wanted to reach out to the country for them.
About the campaign
As part of the campaign to raise funds for the Red Crescent, the brothers have committed to creating Maths and chess videos for 30 days.
The boys have won many awards as they relate to Maths and chess, which are the activities they are doing for the campaign.
Talal has received several medals at various chess competitions held by Chess In Dubai. He has also received a certificate of academic achievement in Maths by Johns Hopkins Centre for Talented Youth for academic year 2018-2019.
Leyth was awarded numerous sports awards such as the All Around Skills Sports Award in year 4 at Kings Al Barsha and the Maths Academic Award in year 4 at Kings School Al Barsha. He has also won several medals during chess competitions in Dubai.
Chess and math enthusiasts
Fawaz, 13, going to Year 9 at Dubai College, on the other hand, was awarded the United Kingdom Mathematics Trust Competition (UKMT) annual competition, where approximately 300,000 students sit for the exam and only top 1,200 qualify for the Olympiad.
As chess and maths enthusiasts, it was only natural for the boys to do something related to this as part of their charity endeavour,” said their mother Suhair Sharaf.
“I love challenging myself wanted to share this with the world. By connecting this to charity I felt it would inspire more children to love Maths and chess.” said Fawaz.
The boys started posting maths and chess videos on their Instagram handles from August 12. Till date they have made 33 posts.
“The campaign details and link are below. People can donate directly when they follow the link and the funds go directly to Red Crescent via yallagive.com,” said Suhair.
