"Education holds out hope for the future, enrichment for the present, and dignity for mankind." - His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum.

If you believe that education is, ‘a debt due from present to future generations,’ then you can fully comprehend the vision and goal laid out by Dubai Cares, the world’s largest foundation solely devoted to improving primary education for children in developing countries.
While most of us take education for granted, a UNICEF report cites that there are still 120 million children globally, mostly girls, who lack access to education.

Launched as a fund-raising campaign on September 19, 2007 by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Prime Minister and Vice-President, and Ruler of Dubai, Dubai Cares is inspired by His Highness’ belief that education is the most effective tool in breaking the cycle of poverty.

Raising Dh3.4 billion (US$925 million) in eight weeks, Dubai Cares represents Dubai’s contribution to the U.N. Millennium Development Goals for providing primary education to every child by 2015. The initiative validates the emirate’s commitment to play an effective role in securing a better tomorrow for future generations.

With the funds raised, and through collaborations with organizations such as UNICEF, Oxfam and Save the Children, Dubai Cares has initiated a number of programs to provide children with education and an improved standard of living.

Its first phase grants were in countries that have the highest level of need and can therefore deliver the maximum benefit for children. The 12 countries chosen by Dubai Cares for Phase One included; Bangladesh, Bosnia, Chad, Comoros Islands, Djibouti, Maldives, Mauritania, Niger, Pakistan, Palestinian refugees (in Lebanon and Jordan), Sudan, and Yemen.

In these countries, Dubai Cares implemented needs-specific, primary education programmes based on its value chain of education. These comprised of; the building of new school facilities, the rehabilitation of existing damaged school premises, the ensuring of safe water and proper sanitation facilities, the distribution of school supply materials, the improvement of nutritional intake and conducting of medical check-ups for students and teachers, and the provision of training and workshops to adequately empower teachers and principals.

To date, in less than one year, Dubai Cares has provided education to over four million children in 13 countries across Africa and Asia, far exceeding its original target of one million children.


The Million Book Challenge
As part of the 2008 Dubai Cares Campaign, students in Dubai have been asked to read a million books in just two weeks. It may sound like a daunting task, but this is precisely the premise of the newly launched initiative by Dubai Cares, called the Million Book Challenge.


For each book that students read, Dubai Cares will buy a new book and donate it to children in need around the world. Books will be distributed to these children in their local language. The distribution of the books will be undertaken through Dubai Cares’ partnership with Room to Read, an acclaimed non-profit organization that was founded in 2000 and has built schools and libraries around the world.

The Million Book Challenge shares the belief of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum that Dubai's students can help transform the lives of their less privileged counterparts around the world.

Noor Dubai - Bringing Light in a World of Darkness
It was Helen Keller, who once remarked: “Of all the senses, sight must be the most delightful.” Having lost her sense of vision and hearing shortly before the age of two, no doubt, she understands well what the loss of sight implies, but Helen Keller has not been the only one afflicted by blindness.

According to the World Health Organisation estimates, more than 161 million people worldwide are visually impaired. The statistics are shocking: a child goes blind every minute, and an adult every 5 seconds. More than 90 per cent of the worlds visually impaired live in developing countries, and over 90 per cent of blind individuals live in areas with no access to quality eye care at an affordable price. Vitamin A deficiency is a prevalent cause of preventable blindness in children, with an estimated 250,000 to 500,000 children annually becoming blind due to this nutritional deficiency.

With an idealistic vision, therefore, of a world free from preventable forms of blindness, His Highness Sheikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum launched ‘Noor Dubai’, aiming to help the World Health Organization (WHO) and International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB) in achieving its goals outlined in VISION 2020: the Right to Sight.

In partnership with leading international organizations, Noor Dubai seeks to provide therapeutic, preventative, and education programmes to treat and prevent blindness and visual impairment in developing countries on a local, regional, and international scale. The new initiative, launched during Ramadan this year, aims to deliver preventive eye care to over one million people as part of its drive to realise its vision of a world free from curable forms of blindness.

In addition to the UAE, Noor Dubai will reach out to people in a number of countries including; Iraq, Afghanistan, Mali, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Pakistan, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Egypt, Jordan and Palestine.

During the month of Ramadan, several regional and international patients were treated in Dubai for multiple conditions that cause blindness and poor vision. These patients would not have had access to these treatments in their home countries due to limited personal finances, logistical difficulties, or limited resources in their healthcare system.

The programme works by first identifying potential patients who are medically assessed by a local ophthalmologist in their country. Noor Dubai’s medical team then determines whether their diagnoses are suitable for treatment in Dubai. If positive, Noor Dubai arranges the travel of each patient, and a travelling companion, to Dubai where a medical team consisting of both local and international doctors manages patient care through a variety of methods such as eyeglass prescription and provision, medication, and, when needed, surgery.

Noor Dubai’s prevention programmes aim to eliminate avoidable forms of blindness and visual impairment in developing countries, while its education initiatives involve increasing public awareness of the detrimental impact of blindness and visual impairment on individual’s lives and on society as a whole.

Noor Dubai was launched on September 3, 2008, to reflect the spirit of the Holy Month of Ramadan as a month of charity, social awareness and community solidarity.

Submitted by Sangeetha Swaroop