Dubai: Giving has always been part of the UAE culture since its early years.
But declaring it as this year’s theme will definitely give it more boost and encourage more people to do their bit for the community, an official said.
Dubai’s Community Development Authority (CDA) has, from the time it was established in 2008, been working to continuously elevate social standards, ensure social cohesion and community development and provide platforms for ordinary people to serve the community.
With the theme Year of Giving as a national goal for 2017, Hana Bakkar Al Harthi, director of Social Cohesion Department at CDA, said it will encourage more people to volunteer and give back to the community.
“For CDA since its establishment, all of our activities and efforts have been into inspiring volunteerism, and promoting social cohesion and social responsibility. This year, our progammes will be focusing on the same but with an emphasis on encouraging the private sector to participate heavily into these activities and programmes,” Al Harthi said.
The more than 6,000 volunteers registered with CDA clocked in 62,000 volunteering hours for 2016, equivalent to more than Dh5 million.
The best part, Al Harthi said, is that this was not done by just one or two nationalities but more than 100 nationalities, the youngest of whom is 10 and the oldest is 105 years old.
“Within Dubai we have more than 200 nationalities and out of which, 118 nationalities are already volunteering when previously, it was just mainly locals. This is really something to be proud of.”
HOW TO GIVE BACK BY VOLUNTEERING:
1) Download the Dubai Volunteer App.
2) Register and upload your IDs and other required documents.
3) Watch out for volunteering opportunities through the app.