‘UAE Stands with Lebanon’ campaign draws thousands of volunteers
Dubai Care organises the relief aid campaign at Expo City Dubai
HE Reem bint Ebrahim Al Hashimy, Minister of State for International Cooperation, called on the UAE community to participate in 'UAE Stands with Lebanon' campaign#UAEStandsWithLebanon #الإمارات_لبنان #الإمارات_وطن_الإنسانية #الإمارات_معك_يا_لبنان@MohamedBinZayed@UAEEmbBeirut… pic.twitter.com/vPkRSUrkW8
— UAE Forsan (@UAE_Forsan) October 11, 2024
Dubai: Thousands of volunteers turned up for the relief aid collection and packing initiative held as part of the ‘UAE Stands with Lebanon’ campaign at Expo City Dubai.
Dubai Cares organised the relief aid with the support of volunteers and several entities. The initiative is part of a public campaign that began on October 8 and will run until October 21. Another round of collection will be held tomorrow at Abu Dhabi Cruise Terminal, Zayed Port.
Initiative
This initiative comes as part of the directives of President His Highness Shaikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and with the follow-up of Shaikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Vice President, Deputy Prime Minister, and Chairman of the Presidential Court, and under the supervision of Shaikh Theyab bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Deputy Chairman of the Presidential Court for Development and Fallen Heroes' Affairs and Chair of the International Humanitarian and Philanthropic Council.
HE Reem bint Ebrahim Al Hashimy, Minister of State for International Cooperation, called on the UAE community to participate in 'UAE Stands with Lebanon' campaign#UAEStandsWithLebanon #الإمارات_لبنان #الإمارات_وطن_الإنسانية #الإمارات_معك_يا_لبنان@MohamedBinZayed@UAEEmbBeirut… pic.twitter.com/vPkRSUrkW8
— UAE Forsan (@UAE_Forsan) October 11, 2024
Volunteers stood at over 10 stations packing various items including diapers, baby food, soap, biscuits and personal hygiene products into boxes with the phrase 'UAE stands with Lebanon' stamped on it. These will be shipped to Lebanon as part of emergency aid that the UAE is providing to the country.
Some wore T-shirts supporting Lebanon, a couple of kids had shawls in national colours draped around their necks, and one woman had the Lebanese flag painted on her right cheek.
Capacity crowd
“The capacity of the hall is 1,000 people and that’s how many people we were expecting,” said Dr. Tariq Al Gurg, CEO and Vice Chairman of Dubai Cares. “But we have already had 2,500 volunteers, and we are expecting it to rise to 3,500 or 4,500 by the end of the session. We had to really rapidly change the strategy to ensure as many people could have the experience. The packing sessions were shortened to about 40 minutes.”
Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan has instructed the entire community to work together to support the Lebanese people who have been affected by this crisis. It is very important to combine all nationalities, all religions to show how this community in the UAE is helping.”
A similar event is being conducted in Abu Dhabi on Sunday at the cruise terminal. Dr Al Gurg said similar packing events will be held in the coming weeks as well.