DUBAI // An overwhelming response from Dubai residents for a community campaign to provide 50,000 school kits to Palestinian children in Gaza ensured that the target was achieved earlier than planned.
By Friday, more than 3,500 volunteers had arrived for the Rebuild Palestine, Start with Education event, organised by Dubai Cares.
“The initial plan was to have it run until Sunday,” said Abdullah Al Shehhi, director of business support at Dubai Cares.
“We didn’t expect to get that many people. That’s why we planned it for four days. We really didn’t expect the number to be as huge as this.”
Over the first two days, Thursday and Friday, 3,593 volunteers gathered at Al Boom Tourist Village in Dubai. They packed school essentials, including a backpack, notebooks, sketch books, a geometry kit, a calculator and pencil case, for the second half of the academic year for children studying in schools run by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.
“Now the kits are in the warehouse of our shipping company and we are finalising things with customs to send them off,” Mr Al Shehhi said.
Feda Abou Chahen, a 32-year-old Palestinian who was born and raised in Dubai, attended the event on Thursday.
“I found out about it through a Bayt.com newsletter and Dubai Cares had a photo of it on Instagram,” she said. “It also happened at the same time as the storm in Syria, Lebanon and Palestine so they also collected winter clothes.”
From employees to schoolchildren, the event’s volunteers and organisers made it a success.
“The efforts were amazing,” Ms Chahen said. “The organisation was brilliant and the fact that they provided food was great. It was on point, very efficient, everyone wanted to be there and it was definitely a great community event.”
She said more such events should be organised in Dubai.
“For me, education is a key driver,” she said. “Rebuilding Palestine is a great theme so I definitely wanted to be a part of that and I’ve always been active in the Palestinian field.”
Dubai Cares has teamed up with the Compassion campaign to collect any kind of donation and items in five locations across Dubai to be shipped to needy areas in the Levant.
“The main one will be in Al Boom Tourist Village,” Mr Al Shehhi said. “Then we will have collection points in Mall of the Emirates, Mirdiff City Centre, Marina Mall and Dubai Mall.
Mariam Rayes, from Jordan, said the event has inspired her to take part in more volunteer work in the future.
“I think we constantly need reminders about how lucky we are to live in the UAE,” she said. “I’m not surprised they ended it so quickly, there were really a lot of people,” she said. “It’s really comforting to know that so many people in Dubai reached out to help. We definitely need more of this here.”
cmalek@thenational.ae
