Today's Edition
Hala Al Khayyat (Abu Dhabi) - The Emirates Red Crescent at a press conference on Wednesday announced the launch of six initiatives under the slogan "Sustainable Giving" under its broader ambassador initiative to empower volunteers, provide volunteer opportunities, and support volunteers' innovations, ideas, and development.
Through the first initiative, titled "Robot Volunteer", the Emirates Red Crescent established the world's first robotics lab for volunteer work. The lab leverages technology, science, and space for humanitarian volunteer work. The team initiated the project by creating the first volunteer robot in the country, named "Hilal".
The second initiative is an environmental volunteering initiative termed the "Diving Team", which involves a team of seven volunteers, representing the seven emirates of the country, that will go on dives to help clean the country's marine environment.
The third initiative focuses on volunteering in the health sector. It introduces a "Remote Medical Consultation" service for beneficiaries, with a particular focus on orphans and families in need. The service's first round of specialties offered include general medicine, ophthalmology, chronic diseases, and endocrinology, with plans to expand into other medical specialties in later stages.
The fourth initiative forms a "Volunteer Teachers Team", which will organise educational workshops to improve the Arabic and English language skills of students from underprivileged backgrounds in several schools in Abu Dhabi, Al Ain, and Sharjah. These extra lessons are intended to help students them pass university qualifying exams like "EMSAT".
The fifth initiative, "The Electronic Giving Fund," allows volunteers to propose and submit their ideas and innovations online.
In sixth initiative, Emirates Red Crescent-affiliated volunteer teams will plant 28 Ghaf trees in various emirates of the country, coinciding with the opening day of COP28 on November 30. Hammoud Abdulla Al Junaibi, Acting Secretary-General of the Emirates Red Crescent, emphasised the importance of the initiatives in supporting volunteer work, and the importance of involving volunteers in presenting their ideas and initiatives.
Al Junaibi said that the Emirates Red Crescent's ambassador initiative, which is the first of its kind in the country, attracts volunteers and involves them in activities at the social, cultural, economic, and environmental levels. Rashid Mubarak Al Mansouri, Deputy Secretary-General of the Emirates Red Crescent for Foreign Aid, noted that the opportunity is available for all to present their ideas and suggestions for volunteer work.
The UAE has known the value of volunteer work for a long time, which has resulted in creating a cohesive social fabric characterised by solidarity, selflessness, striving to meet the needs of others, providing aid to those in distress, and spreading job, Al Mansouri said.
The principles of goodness, piety, and charity have deepened in the hearts of successive Emirati generations, he added, noting that the UAE is inhabited by those who are loyal to their fellow citizens, neighbours, and humanity as a whole.
Emiratis have managed to leave their distinctive mark on the map of charitable action, both regionally and internationally, he said. The new initiatives will make a clear impact in knowledge exchange among volunteers, also helping to build volunteers' capabilities and achieve quality, excellence, and sustainability.
