Building schools brick by brick

Donate a brick and build a classroom at the Dubai Mall. This is a latest initiative of Dubai Cares to create awareness among the UAE population about the education of girl children in developing countries.

Parents are being encouraged to bring their children to the Star Atrium of The Dubai Mall where they can pay Dh50 for a book shaped brick, bearing the donor’s name. The brick will be used to build a classroom and the amount used to facilitate quality primary education for girl children.

Tariq Al Gurg, Chief Executive Officer, Dubai Cares told Emirates 24|7 that the organisation has been working hard to create awareness among the UAE population in contributing towards such charitable activities. “We have been organising various awareness campaigns and road shows to create awareness among our public.

Every single dirham will help in adding up to our success and the cause of providing quality education for children in poverty-stricken countries,” he said.

In 2010 Dubai Cares organised various programmes including the Laugh with Wanho Chung, an Arabic stand-up comedy show, the 3km long Walk for Education along Jumeirah, a School Awareness Campaign in collaboration with the Knowledge and Human Development Authority and the School Feeding Campaign launched during last Ramadan.

This Ramadan, the organisation is focusing on Girls’ Education Campaign and towards empowering girls within their communities by addressing gender imbalances in primary education. “We have also tied up with various businesses as strategic partners to add further impetus to our efforts,” he added.

The efforts have been fruitful. It has so far managed to reach out to about 5 million children, five times its initial target.

“Since we started the Dubai Cares initiative and decided to focus on child education, we have come a long way and are today working in 24 countries with five million beneficiaries. We have built, renovated and equipped about thousand schools, built more than one thousand wells, over 450 libraries and trained about 20,000 teachers. It is our goal to lead global efforts in ensuring children’s access to quality primary education in developing countries regardless of their gender, ethnicity or religion,” he said.

He added that the guiding principle of Dubai Cares is the understanding that education as the best long-term solution to global poverty. The approach is to integrate four key components: School Infrastructure; School Health & Nutrition; Water, Sanitation & Hygiene (WASH) in Schools; and Quality of Education.

It also recently revamped its website, www.dubaicares.ae  adding several payment options. Those willing to donate directly can make payment online, or just send an sms to 9030 for Dh30; 9090 for Dh90; 9300 for Dh300, 9600 for Dh600 and 9900 for Dh900 both on etisalat and du networks.