Dubai: A total of 5,089,611 individuals in the UAE and abroad have benefited from 43 corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives carried out by Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) last year, the RTA announced on Thursday.
Rowdah Al Mehrizi, Director of Marketing and Corporate Communication, Corporate Administrative Support Services Sector at RTA, said: “The initiatives included diverse events and activities such as the 100 million meals, Ramadan initiatives, donating reconditioned assets, Eid Joy to bring happiness to orphans, Kiswat Khair (Clothes For Good) for retrofitted uniforms, and the Charity Purse, to name a few.
The initiatives were also associated with national events and campaigns such as the flag day, Commemoration Day, Reading Month, and the Emirates Mars Exploration Project. Activities were likewise in line with international days such as the International Day of Older Persons, International Workers’ Day, World Humanitarian Day, International Children’s Day and the national occasions of the Gulf countries.
Product bazaar
Several CSR’s initiatives targeted people of determination such as supporting the autism awareness campaign, etiquette of dealing with people of determination workshop, and people of determination products bazaar.
The RTA also launched initiatives to support the low-income people such as granting all training materials to obtain free of charge driver licences for low-income people.
Initiatives also targeted youth through the launch of the Youth for Public Transport Facebook group to encourage use of public transport and Tamkeen (Empowerment) programme to qualify youth in small and medium enterprises. It also supported initiatives of the Dubai Police to raise public awareness about the security and safety of beaches and cybercrimes.
Ramadan initiatives
Al Mehrizi noted: “About 4,700 people benefited from RTA’s initiatives during the holy month of Ramadan last year. Meals-on-Wheels initiative included the distribution of 2,300 meals at RTA’s facilities in collaboration with Bait Al Khair, UAE Red Crescent, Dar Al Bear Society, and Dar Al Ber Charitable Society.”
“Marking Zayed Humanitarian Day (19th of Ramadan), RTA distributed nol cards each worth 500 dirhams for buying Ramadan rations, which covered 242 taxi drivers and 200 bus drivers whose services were terminated. RTA also staged the Tolerance Iftar where 2,000 iftar meals were distributed to fixed-income groups. RTA also donated reconditioned assets, including 100 computers, to the people of determination and disadvantaged families,” she added.
Awareness campaigns
RTA said nine million public transport riders have benefited from the awareness campaigns organised by the Dubai Police, targeting beach safety and cybercrimes. RTA supported such efforts through ads in various public transportation means. It also supported the autism awareness campaign through broadcasting messages via smart screens on RTA’s public transport means and internal office screens. The Bridge of Tolerance, Dubai Water Canal Waterfall, and the pedestrian bridges on Al Wasl Road and Al Safa Park were lit in blue, in support of this awareness campaign.
Supporting the youth
As for the youth, RTA, in cooperation with Noon, HP and Keolis-Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, provided 14 laptops to the students who use the Dubai Metro and Tram most. It launched the 4th edition of the Tamkeen programme, which had developed the capacities of 100 beneficiaries through workshops in management, language and technology.
“RTA is keen to undertake initiatives targeting different groups and its CSR initiatives were rewarded with an international recognition through obtaining ISO 26000 certification by BIS for the third year in a row following assessment of its local and global community-oriented initiatives,” commented Al Mehrizi.
Celebrating national events
The RTA also held several initiatives to mark the national events through benefiting employees as well as the community members, including flag day where the state flag was hoisted in main streets, Al Maktoum Bridge, Dubai Water Canal Bridge, Trade Centre Roundabout, Waterfall of the Dubai Water Canal, Tolerance Bridge on the canal, and pedestrian bridges on Al Wasl and Al Hadiqa Streets. The flag was displayed on the smart screens across Dubai streets, Dubai Metro screens and the internal screens of the RTA building.
RTA also took part in celebrations of Commemoration Day when the nation honours its brave martyrs by displaying the logo on the screens of the smart traffic systems. RTA is keen to add to the social responsibility initiatives to the programmes that celebrate cultural events such as Reading Month, the first of its kind worldwide, which promotes the culture of science and knowledge.
Al Mehrizi noted: “In line with this cultural initiative, RTA launched the virtual Help Me To Read initiative, which attracted 40 orphan children from fixed-income families. It also launched the Read with RTA app and rewarded readers with two million nol plus points. Initiatives run also included the Reading Advisor, a virtual initiative that brought together a group of RTA’s employees.
