Daman opens Al Ain call centre


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Daman, the national insurance company, opened an additional call centre in Al Ain yesterday.

The facility, for Thiqa members only, will be run by Emiratis and aims to provide career opportunities for nationals.

It is part of a plan to involve more Emiratis in the workplace, lowering the unemployment level.

The centre can handle 600 calls a day and operators are available around the clock.

Daman has also signed a contract with the Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT) to launch the Daman Institute for Health Economics, with the hope that Emiratis will take the lead in the industry in the future.

The call centre is attached to Al Ain's main Thiqa branch and is one of the largest in the country, catering to more than 2.3 million members.

Daman opened its first branch in Madinat Zayed last year, with the aim of producing more job opportunities for Emiratis in the Western Region, and help staff experience different roles within the company.

The insurer has plans to relocate its other Al Ain branch, dedicated to basic and enhanced clients, which is currently in the Emirates Post building. The new site, with a larger working environment and space for newcomers, will be at the junction of Khalifa bin Zayed the 1st Street and Khalid bin Sultan Street.

Call-centre staff can be reached at 800 4 80000.

Some of Darwish's last words

"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008

His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.