Manal Ismail
DUBAI // Abi Shephard planned to fill two or three cartons for the Box Appeal charity initiative.
But when she went to the Radisson Blu Hotel in Dubai to pick them up, she ended up going home with 20.
"I figured if I can fill these boxes, my friends can help out," she said.
The 28-year-old decided to throw a Ramadan party and invite all her friends to participate.
"I sent an e-mail to all of them with the list of items," she said.
"Everyone was really enthusiastic about doing something for the community."
On the evening of the party, Ms Shephard's living room floor was covered with full boxes.
The one-month Box Appeal campaign - run by Radisson Blu and Park Inn hotels in the Middle East in conjunction with the Red Crescent - aims to collect 10,000 boxes filled with basic daily necessities and distribute them to labourers.
The programme crossed borders for the first time this year, extending to Bahrain, Egypt and Kuwait. Nearly 60 per cent of the boxes collected have been distributed, said Klara Zakis, public relations and communications manager with the Rezidor Hotel Group, owners of the Radisson Blu and Park Inn chains.
"This week staff at the hotels have begun to use their links with their national embassies and schools," she said. "We've had tremendous support from various community groups. Women's groups in Abu Dhabi and Oman have taken boxes and used the Box Appeal as a team-building, community activity."
The appeal team also plans to set up creative activities with schools in the second week of September.
"We hope to encourage participation as well as teach children about the values of sharing, giving and thinking of others," Ms Zakis said.
Children can treat the shopping list as a treasure hunt and can include drawings, poems or letters to give to the workers.
"This will give a nice unique and thoughtful addition to any box," Ms Zakis said.
Although 5,919 boxes have been distributed, only 1,716 have been collected. Organisers are asking volunteers to return the boxes to the hotels by September 15.
They hope collection will pick up pace after the holidays, especially as people return from their summer breaks.
Last year, 8,000 boxes were collected and distributed.
"We receive a lot of boxes back during the second half of the campaign," said Marko Hytonen, the area vice president of the Rezidor Hotel Group.
"We're confident that after Eid we will begin to receive a lot of filled boxes. We're now planning the next stage of the Box Appeal, the logistics of getting these 10,000 boxes to those who need them most."
