Volunteers team up to give charity school a makeover
dubai — A charity school in Ajman is going to get a makeover this month so students can learn in a “fitting environment”. Real estate developer Ominyat and the Dubai Economic Development Department (DED) have launched the initiative called ‘Tarmeem’, which is in line with the UAE’s declaration of 2017 as the Year of Giving.
If you go to the school today, you can see that it’s not a very fit environment for the students.” Mohammed Hmeid, director of sales and marketing at Ominyat
Tarmeem, which translates to ‘refurbish’ in English, will help renovate the Manar Al Iman Charity Private School. The makeover will include the complete restoration of 22 classrooms, construction of a brand new playground, new windows and doors, and installation of airconditioning systems, among other improvements.
A total of 19 private entities and 95 volunteers are taking part in the initiative to help improve the education environment for these students.
“If you go to the school today, you can see that it’s not a very fit environment for the students — there’s water leaking onto the students, the shading, the lighting, the cooling system, it gets too hot in the summer ... If you make all these things better then it would make a great learning environment for these students,” Mohammed Hmeid, director of sales and marketing at Ominyat, said.
“The girls’ school is in a far better condition than the boys’ school because they just moved into a new building. The boy’s section needs significant work to be done. Even though they are growing, they are not replacing the old structure, which is very important. We are hoping to make the classrooms fit for kids to go back to by April 9.”
The school has 3,500 students enrolled in KG1 to Year 12. These include 500 orphans, 800 Syrians and 700 Yemenis. It was established in 1984 to offer free classes to orphans, students from limited income families and the needy.
“We started this initiative in January and we had a list of schools that we could help. We selected Manar al Imaan School. They work very hard over there. They do double shifts to teach the students. We went within our contacts and we were overwhelmed with the reaction we got. Now, we have a comprehensive list of people wanting to help. It’s all volunteer work and donations,” said Hmeid.
The renovations are expected to start this month and will be completed by early or mid April.
The year 2017 was declared as the Year of Giving by the President, His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, to encourage people to give back to the community.
sarwat@khaleejtimes.com