Dubai: A Caribbean expatriate woman, who wanted to do charity work for workers, was one of the two winners of Dh77,777 in Emirates Draw today.
Lissa V, 40, was not expecting to win, but went ahead and participated in Emirates Draw for what was possibly her fourth attempt in almost two months, the organisers said. A housewife who has lived in Dubai for two years, Lissa spends a large part of her day home-schooling and looking after her children, apart from many other tasks.
While preparing for Christmas with her children, and as they set about putting together gift bags for low-income workers in the neighbourhood — particularly the drivers — Lissa sadly realised that she did not have enough disposable income to be able to help as many workers as she and her children would have liked. It was at that point that she decided she would participate in Emirates Draw again after three earlier attempts turned futile.
“I played a couple of months ago and I didn’t win. I didn’t think about it very much other than that I was unlikely to win. But around Christmas, my children and I really wanted to gift something of value to the workers, especially the drivers, and it was at that point that I realised that we didn’t have a lot of disposable income to be able to help others. I’ve always tried to support and make a difference. This time though, I felt deeply in my heart that with my children I wanted to make an even bigger difference. So, I prayed to win and I am still trying to grasp the fact that my prayers have been answered! I want other people to know that they too can help.”
Frequent player
On the other hand, Indian expatriate Roshan Lobo, 47, a seaman, is a frequent player in raffle draws and enjoys the excitement regularly, but has never won anything significant. A resident of Dubai for the past 20 years, Lobo and his wife and two children were delighted about his win, but they were also in disbelief when they received the notification about the win. He replayed the draw’s weekly broadcast to hear his preferred numbers being read out aloud — again and again.
“I’m still in disbelief! It’s Dh77,777. It helps to lift a very large part of my worries about the future for my two children as I want to make sure I can give them everything they need. I am very excited about winning this amount because now there something very real to put in the bank account for my kids. I’m so grateful to Emirates Draw for alleviating my worries,” Lobo said.
How to participate?
Entrants can choose to participate in the weekly draw by purchasing a Dh50 pencil that will support in planting a coral polyp at www.emiratesdraw.com. After registering online, participants can select their seven-digit number or have the system choose their number randomly.
With their purchase, participants are entered into two separate draws. The first one is a raffle draw where every week seven lucky participants are guaranteed Dh77,777 each. In addition, all participants are entered into a second draw with six prize categories that include a Grand Prize of Dh100 million for the participant who matches all the seven winning numbers.
