Rays of hope for young

Beacon of Hope UAE, a non-profit organisation, was founded by Sheikha Shamma bint Sultan bin Khalifa Al Nahyan and aims to provide children in war-torn and poverty-stricken countries with lights and literacy.

Sheikha Shamma, along with co-chairwoman Larisa Miller and her team, travel around the world and provide a basic engineering lesson in how to build a simple solar powered light.

The solar light project by Beacon of Hope UAE was part of its mission towards “light, literacy and life”.

Included in the solar light assembly box is circuitry for the solar panel to be connected to rechargeable batteries that allows the recipients light for hours.

The project aims to improve the health of youth living in camps by providing an alternative to kerosene lamps, which can cause lung problems and even death in some cases.

The organisation also distributes books to the children straight from Sheikha Shamma’s group and Dubai Cares.

It is also working on developing medical technology that will help doctors diagnose infant illness through the use of simple and cheap digital technology.

A stethoscope attached to a smartphone app will allow medical practitioners to identify malignant heart murmurs, while face-detection technology can help them identify genetic disorders.

The project was founded in 2016 and is active in Jordan, Liberia, Morocco and other countries around the Middle East and North Africa. It is looking to launch in Iraq and Egypt in the coming months.

Their collaborators include Akon Lighting Africa, run by the American rapper Akon, UAE Red Crescent, and various UAE governmental and non-governmental organisations.