UAE celebrates International Day of Charity on Saturday

The UAE will join the world on Saturday in celebrating the annual International Day of Charity on 5th September.

This year, the occasion has gained greater importance, as it coincides with the coronavirus pandemic. The UAE has a distinguished and full record of charity and humanitarian work and has established the best example of dealing with the pandemic, in solidarity with all countries of the world.

The UAE’s related efforts are not limited to providing medical or relief aid. It has evacuated many expatriates living outside their countries during the outbreak, transported them to their countries, and hosted some of them in the Emirates Humanitarian City.

The UAE has prioritised charity work based on human values, such as giving, and for many years, it has ranked the first donor entity in relation to national income, with a figure of 1.31 percent of total income, which is double the average rate identified by the United Nations, UN, of 0.7 percent.

Over 45 donors, humanitarian organisations and charity associations operate in the UAE to help needy people around the world.

The Emirates Red Crescent, ERC, established 37 years ago, is one of the UAE’s leading humanitarian and charity organisations and has an extensive history of international humanitarian support.

In 2019, the number of beneficiaries of the ERC’s local programmes and aid campaigns valued at AED140.7 million amounted to over 1 million citizens and residents from 87 nationalities, with its social aid valued at AED115.3 million and seasonal projects at AED30.5 million.

Globally, the value of relief operations carried out by the ERC in the first nine months of 2019 amounted to AED50,231,778, benefitting 2,142,878 people, including Yemenis, Syrian refugees, people affected by events in Myanmar, and those affected by natural disasters in Pakistan, South Sudan, Mauritania, Malawi and Mozambique.

The ERC supports over 114,000 orphans in the UAE and 25 other countries, and over 11 million people in 80 countries have benefitted from its Ramadan programmes.

The Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives is the largest humanitarian organisation in the region. Since its establishment, its efforts have been based on humanitarian work, both development and relief work. In 2019, it spent AED1.3 billion on its development, humanitarian, knowledge and empowerment programmes that benefitted over 71 million people in 108 countries.

The Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan Charitable and Humanitarian Foundation is one of the key pillars of charity work in the UAE. It has helped various sectors, most notably the health, education and relief sectors, and established cultural, humanitarian and scientific research centres, as well as schools, higher education institutes and public libraries.

The Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan Foundation has helped reinforce the UAE’s regional and international humanitarian stature.