In the wake of the refugee crisis Europe and the Middle East is grappling with, the UAE has stepped up to improve asy-lum seekers’ conditions.
Responding to an appeal from the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Mak-toum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, said the UAE would fund and facilitate airlift-ing humanitarian supplies from the UNHCR’s global stockpile in Dubai to Greece. The operation involves four aircraft carrying around 90 metric tonnes of aid valued at $366,240 (Dh1.34 million) to Thessaloniki.
Dr Nabil Othman, the UNHCR’s Acting Regional Representative to the GCC, said, “This important and unstinting ges-ture by [Shaikh Mohammad] through the International Humanitarian City will serve to improve the difficult living con-ditions that refugees and asylum seekers are facing.”
Shaikha Lubna Bint Khalid Al Qasimi, Minister of International Cooperation and Development and Head of the UAE Committee for the Coordination of Humanitarian Foreign Aid, said recently the UAE has provided total aid of Dh60 billion to 140 countries from 2010-14. Of this, Dh2.02 billion went to support children around the world.
The UAE also in November pledged a total of $8.32 million in donations to various UN development funds and pro-grammes for next year. The announcement was made during the UN Pledging Conference in New York, and WAM re-ported that the listed contributions were not exhaustive, with further contributions to be announced once finalised.
Most generous
Last month’s acts of munificence only top the several hundred that the UAE has recorded over the past 44 years. As a result, the country is currently the world’s largest donor of official development aid, relative to national income.
Besides a bevy of activities by government organisations, several companies, institutions and individuals in the UAE are equally fervent about adopting philanthropic causes that range from health, hunger, education and development, to crises and disasters, and humanitarian advocacy.
A shining example of this is a team of young children who just finished running across the country to raise funds for child amputees. Having started in Abu Dhabi on November 21, and concluding in Dubai today, the 7 Emirates Run, which began in 2010 as a solo effort, is now an annual event.
Meanwhile, Taskforce UAE, a group of individuals and associations in Dubai, recently hosted Boodle Fight for a Cause at the Philippine Consulate, with all proceeds from the meal earmarked as aid for victims of Typhoon Koppu.
Dubai’s Sharaf Group has just opened a school in Lindi, Tanzania, after building it in cooperation with WAMA Founda-tion, an NGO in Dar Es Salaam. At the launch, group co-owner Sharafuddin Sharaf said, “We support many projects, we build dispensaries, wells and other social services. But the long-term solution for so many of the world’s challenges is education. Education must remain the number one priority for all of us.”
The Zayed Charity Marathon’s Cairo edition slated for December 18 will raise funds for hepatitis patients in Egypt. Spearheaded by Shaikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs — who has just made a personal donation of Dh1 million — the second edition of the event aims to exceed the funds raised for children with cancer last year.
While the Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan Foundation has assisted more than 38,000 students at UAE schools, the nation donated about $15 million to the UNRWA in August to help Palestinian refugees. WAM also reports that the Abu Dha-bi Fund for Development has invested Dh7.3 billion to fund and manage some 64 development projects in Morocco.
Rising to causes
Earlier this year, Abdullah Al Ghurair, head of the eponymous conglomerate in Dubai, pledged a third of his assets to charity when he set up the Abdullah Al Ghurair Education Foundation and contributed Dh4.2 billion to fund its first ten years.
Similarly, Sunny Varkey of GEMS has assigned more than half his wealth to help teachers around the world through The Giving Pledge, while P.N.C. Menon, founder of Sobha Developers, has pledged half of his $600-million personal for-tune to charity.
However, charity is by no means restricted to billionaires. UAE residents of ordinary means, too, chime in to contribute to several dozen humanitarian causes in the country and around the world in as many ways as they can. These include acts of kindness to blue-collar workers, donations to the UAE’s listed charities, organising physical and financial aid for people afflicted by disaster, and participating in events that raise funds for specific causes.
The big picture
In April, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s Development Assistance Committee ranked the UAE world number one for development aid as a share of economy for a second consecutive year.
A statement by the Ministry of International and Cooperation Development said the country had given Dh18 billion in 2014, equating to 1.17 per cent of the gross national income. Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, said, “The people and leadership of the UAE are faithfully following the footsteps of the late Shaikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the founder of the nation, who served as a living example of giving and a role model for universal fraternity.”
