Meet the Emirati ‘Mother of Volunteers’ whose life’s goal is to help others
▶ Taghreed Mohammed gave up teaching to dedicate more time to good causes, writes Salam Al Amir
Taghreed Mohammed is known as the “mother of volunteers”. From providing aid at refugee camps to being part of a support team after the Address Downtown Dubai fire in 2015, the mother of four is someone to call upon in a crisis, or when you need a helping hand.
The Emirati’s passion for helping others was encouraged by her father and grew as she embarked on her teaching career.
When she discovered her job was blocking her desire to volunteer, she retired from the classroom to dedicate herself to her calling full-time, soon winning her well-deserved moniker.
Taghreed, who lives in Sharjah, earned a bachelor’s degree in English while studying in Pakistan before returning to the UAE to start teaching.
After leaving her first teaching post, she joined the Dubai Womens’ Association, got married and started a family. Not one to rest for long, she soon got the itch to get back into work.
Taghreed, 57, spent a decade working at schools in Umm Al Quwain and Sharjah, but joining Al Falaj School in 2000 proved a pivotal move.
She became involved in charity work with the Emirates Red Crescent and has never looked back.
“I supervised the school’s Emirates Red Crescent team and that was a turning point for me,” Taghreed says.
She juggled school work and her busy home life with initiatives led by the organisation, even finding time to join other charities as the giving bug proved too strong.
In 2003, she joined the Emirates Association for Volunteers in Sharjah, and two years later became a member of its board of directors.
Four years later she began volunteering for the Emirates Foundation for Youth Development and participated in many events held in the capital under the foundation’s Takatuf programme.
Taghreed was later honoured by Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed, Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Co-operation, for being the best volunteer from Sharjah.
She joined the UAE’s first national emergency response volunteer programme, Sanid, in 2009 and trained to support responders in large-scale crises.
“I wanted to give more but my teaching job was restricting me,” Taghreed says.
In 2013, she decided it was time to focus fully on her charitable work. She believes her passion for doing good comes naturally.
“I was inspired by our beloved Prophet, by our leaders and by my father,” Taghreed says. “They all taught me that there is no satisfaction better than that which comes from helping others and I try to teach my children what I was taught.”
Even when her life has been on the line, she has never thought of reducing her schedule.
She fell into the sea when hosting a charity boating event, believing “that was it” as she plunged deep into the water. She was saved by young volunteers who told her they did not know how she made it out alive.
But Taghreed remained determined to do all she could to help those affected by the fire at the Address Downtown Dubai.
“We helped evacuate the place when the fire broke out,” she says. “We provided moral support, not only to the people who were there but also to firefighters.
“We provided them with food and water. We collected left-behind and lost belongings and listed them,” she says. “It was a challenge.”
For the past three years she
has helped with programmes teaching illiterate Emiratis to read, visited refugee camps in Jordan, helped to build mosques in Pakistan and Malaysia and supported deprived children by paying school and college fees.
Taghreed also lectures about the importance of volunteering to students and received awards for her efforts in Sharjah, Dubai and Abu Dhabi.
She has done so much – yet still has so much left to give.
I was taught that there is no satisfaction better than helping others and I try to teach my children what I was taught