It was around 11pm yesterday when I thought to myself that I need to swing by the Dubai World Trade Center to join some of my friends in this initiative they referred to as "Ramadan Care Packages Night". This night was about residents coming together to package supplies and send them off to construction labor who work hard daily to build our beautiful city as a sign of gratitude! I heard from one of the volunteers that each package contained supplies enough for about 3 months!
Ramadan Care Packages Night is one of the initiatives organized by Adopt-a-Camp. It has been operating for the past 7 years and the website claims that its projects has already impacted the lives of 43 labor camps and more than 32,000 labor men!
First thing I noticed as I walked in was that nearly all the packages were ready and good to go. The sheer number of volunteers, in an assembly line format, were shifting the boxes of supplies from the packaging area to the trucks; seemed to me then that the labors were getting their Eid gifts a little early this year. Hand in hand, it must have taken everyone under 1 hour to load all the trucks.
Some of the volunteers told me that there must have been at least 2,000 people in total working together and at least a few hundreds who did not get the chance to be involved due to the place being over-crowded. Team leaders were assigned each with a specific set of tasks and a group of volunteers to look after.
I was very excited to see among the crowds some of the UAE's popular faces. From the ones I recognized, I spotted fashion-designer and TV persona Tamara Al Gabbani, Singer and Songwriter Hamdan Al Abri, and Flea 4 Charity co-founder Luz Villamil. Seeing them getting their hands dirty with everyone else until the very last minute was very inspiring. And the best thing was: they were all genuine about the effort they were putting in! When I chatted with Abri, I noticed he was sweating it all out from all the boxes he was carrying across the hall but still maintained a friendly smile on his face. Tamara, who clearly looked exhausted towards the end of the night, would not hesitate to jump forward to take up new tasks being spontaneously asked by team leaders. And Luz, who looked like a zombie at around 2am, still managed to energetically assign tasks and manage people as a true team leader.
When all was done at DWTC, I was more moved by the energy everyone still had in them. People were applauding and cheering for the great work done and I was actually surprised that many still insisted to take part in the delivery of the supplies to the labor camp. It was indeed an electric feeling! Those champions who met the labors at the camp and distributed all the care packages to them did not get a chance to go home until around 5.00am.
Great job Dubai! You surely made a difference yesterday! I was very proud to be a part of this wonderful initiative organized by Adopt-a-camp and I am definitely looking forward to serving the community again in future initiatives.
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| Thousands of volunteers load care packages in trucks |
First thing I noticed as I walked in was that nearly all the packages were ready and good to go. The sheer number of volunteers, in an assembly line format, were shifting the boxes of supplies from the packaging area to the trucks; seemed to me then that the labors were getting their Eid gifts a little early this year. Hand in hand, it must have taken everyone under 1 hour to load all the trucks.
Some of the volunteers told me that there must have been at least 2,000 people in total working together and at least a few hundreds who did not get the chance to be involved due to the place being over-crowded. Team leaders were assigned each with a specific set of tasks and a group of volunteers to look after.
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| Working hand-in-hand to clear the thousands of care packages in a short time |
When all was done at DWTC, I was more moved by the energy everyone still had in them. People were applauding and cheering for the great work done and I was actually surprised that many still insisted to take part in the delivery of the supplies to the labor camp. It was indeed an electric feeling! Those champions who met the labors at the camp and distributed all the care packages to them did not get a chance to go home until around 5.00am.
Great job Dubai! You surely made a difference yesterday! I was very proud to be a part of this wonderful initiative organized by Adopt-a-camp and I am definitely looking forward to serving the community again in future initiatives.
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