Spreading happiness
UAE students take part in Ripples of Happiness project
Sowing seeds of happiness, a few UAE students have brought smiles into the lives of several others by partaking in little acts of ‘giving’. Emirati national Reem Al Khalid, a second-year BBM student at Higher Colleges of Technology, Dubai Women’s College, along with eight of her classmates brought smiles on the faces of 10 Dubai Municipality workers as part of the Coca-Cola Foundation’s Ripples of Happiness Youth Empowerment Initiative — in association with Injaz Al Arab. Over 600 Students from 43 Universities across Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Jordan and Palestine and the United Arab Emirates took part in the ‘Ripples of Happiness’ Programme with the intent of bringing happiness to their communities. This was the fourth edition of the programme and the first prize went to a team from Jordan University for their environmental conservation ‘Warm Light’ project winning them $10,000.
Though their project did not make a cut as final winners, a project by the girls of Dubai Women’s College is definitely an inspiring one. ‘Minutes of Happiness’ was born, a programme that sought to assist municipality workers to communicate with their loved ones without spending a major part of their salaries on making calls. This project was especially impressive because students demonstrated initiative by breaking down social barriers, entering labour camps and interacting with them.
The students were given a mere sum of $500 to work with to make them understand the importance of fiscal responsibility. They exemplified this trait seamlessly in their projects and were able to accomplish a lot with the small sum of money.
Reem Al Khalid, team leader said: “Nine of us worked together on the project. After our initial research, we found that municipality workers spent most of their income on making calls back home. When we found that they spent a lot of money on phone calls, we decided that the best way to help them was to get them mobile phone credit vouchers from du and etisalat.”
Imad Al Sayed, mentor from the Coca Cola foundation for the Minutes of Happiness programme helped the girls achieve their goals. Reem added: “It took us about three weeks to collect funds for the calling cards. We used social networking websites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to raise awareness about the project and get people to donate.”
She said: “A lot of people transferred credits on to our mobile phones and others gave us vouchers. We collected about Dh1,000 worth of recharge coupons and distributed them to 10 Municipality workers. Each worker was given 30 minutes of talk time.”
Emirati national Noora Abdul Rahman (20) another student who took part in the initiative said: “We asked a lot of people for help to collect funds and there was a lot of support for the same.”
She added: “I personally felt really happy after the project. Initially we were worried that we would not get any help to complete the project, but it worked out great.”
Emirati national Zainab Bakir (20), another participant said: “It was a great experience helping out the workers. We helped them communicate with their families back home. Call charges are really expensive and even though it is only 30 minutes of talk time, it felt great to bring them closer to their families and children.”
A lot of people transferred credits on to our mobile phones and others gave us vouchers
Dar Al Hakma College in Jeddah came in close second with its child obesity ‘My Health, My Responsibility’ project, which secured them $7,000 grant to implement their idea. The University of Bahrain secured third place and $5,000 for their ‘You are responsible’ or ‘Enta el Mas200l’ project that will raise awareness of the impact of electronic waste.
Antoine Tayyar, Director of Public Affairs and Communications CocaCola Middle East Region said: “It brings us great pleasure to witness how the Ripples of Happiness Programme continues to gain momentum among the Arab youth and awaken social consciousness in the hearts and minds of every individual the programme touches. The aim of Ripples of Happiness is to train the youth on the necessary skill-sets required to identify problems that arise in their local communities and how to proactively tackle these issues by looking past the problem and into the opportunities. The programme also drives public interaction and rallies the support of the society as a whole in aiding the students spread their messages. It truly is a beautiful thing to watch the ripples extend far beyond the end of a semester.”