Let WeLL of Hope OVERFLOW
Mohammed launches virtual plan to reach water to needy
dubai — ‘Water’ pumped virtually through a device in the UAE will flow to remote, arid areas around the world.
The ‘Well of Hope’ competition launched by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, will see government and private sector employees compete to pump the largest amount of water during the holy month of Ramadan.
A video released on Wednesday showed Sheikh Mohammed and several ministers draw ‘water’ through a hand pump attached to an interactive screen. Twenty select entities will receive the device for a day and their employees will be encouraged to pump as much water as possible. At the end of the campaign, the total amount of water pumped will be distributed in areas that don’t have access to clean water.
The aim is to remind people of the great value of water and demonstrate the difficulties hundreds of millions face to get access to water
Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid
dubai — During this Ramadan, employees of selected public and private entities across the UAE will help provide drinking water for people of less fortunate societies, through a mobile, virtual, interactive pump.
His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, VicePresident and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, launched the ‘Well of Hope’ competition, calling on government and private sector employees through his social media platforms to participate in the innovative humanitarian competition.
Sheikh Mohammed tweeted on Wednesday: “A new institutional humanitarian competition embodies our search for the strength in every human being.”
On the competition’s objectives, Sheikh Mohammed said: “There is a sense of goodness in every person, and a merciful and generous soul inside each of us. The aim is to remind people of the great value of water and demonstrate the difficulties hundreds of millions face to get access to water. Small gestures can make a big difference.”
During the holy month of Ramadan, public and private sector employees will get the chance to pump the largest amount of water through the virtual device and the Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives (MBRGI) will donate the total amount of water pumped into the machine to people living in remote, less fortunate societies with no access to clean water. The competition aims to promote the importance of simple individual efforts to serve humanity.
The aim is to remind people of the great value of water and demonstrate the difficulties hundreds of millions face to get access to water.” Sheikh Mohammed bin
Rashid Al Maktoum
Campaign
Public and private entities can send a participation request to contact@arabhopemakers.com to join the competition using the hashtag #Wellofhope. Twenty entities from across the UAE will
be selected, based on the participation plan and supporting campaigns submitted for the competition. The interactive pumping device will rotate across the entities daily, providing an opportunity for employees to pump the largest amount of water in one working day.
Institutional drive
As a humanitarian competition, the Well of Hope seeks to instil the culture of giving and hopemaking and promote the values
of solidarity, empathy and compassion. The competition aims to create an institutional drive through an effective activity that reinforces corporate social responsibility, cementing the country’s position as a regional and international leader in systematic humanitarian work and voluntary efforts at all levels.
The Well of Hope is one of the humanitarian initiatives, operated under the umbrella of the MBRGI, aiming to highlight the pressing issue of water scarcity.
The foundation’s prominent entity that tackles water scarcity is the UAE Water Aid Foundation (Suqia UAE), dedicated to implementing sustainable water supply projects, which benefit over eight million people across the world, especially those in areas with scarce water resources.
According to figures, over 844 million people across the globe lack access to clean drinking water, equivalent to one in every 10 people on Earth.
Women are mostly affected by
water scarcity, as women and girls spend a collective 200 million hours every day collecting water for their families.
Women in Africa travel about six kilometres daily to collect 20 litres of water, while figures show that over 800 children under five years old die every day due to contaminated water consumption and poor health conditions. The gap between water demand and availability is expected to be around 50 per cent by 2023.