When confronted by global challenges such as climate change, war and poverty, it is understandable that people can become despondent. Many news headlines can lead to a sense that more people are working to harm, rather than improve, the state of the world. However, many individuals play their part in building a better world – last year’s World Giving Index found that 4.3 billion people gave time, money or helped a stranger in 2023 – despite that fact that the size and complexity of 21st-century problems remain daunting.
A recent study by Gallup, conducted across 52 countries, representing 76 per cent of the world’s adult population and 86 per cent of global gross domestic product, found hope to be the primary need of followers worldwide. According to the study, more than half (56 per cent) of all attributes linked to influential leaders pointed to hope.
Given this, public recognition of those who go the extra mile becomes even more important, particularly because such figures can inspire and motivate others. It is no different in the UAE, where philanthropy is an integral part of the country’s culture; the World Giving Index last year also ranked the Emirates as the ninth-most generous nation worldwide. Generosity, philanthropy and efforts to help others all feed into creating hope, especially in situations that may seem hopeless.
On Sunday evening in Dubai, the role philanthropy plays in the Emirates was again celebrated when Moroccan charity worker Ahmed Zainoun became the winner of the 2025 Arab Hope Makers award. Mr Zainoun cares for children who suffer from a rare disease that causes extreme damage when they are exposed to sunlight, effectively condemning them to live in the dark.
Established in 2017 by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, the award honours people in the Arab world who dedicate themselves to bettering the lives of others. Finding and identifying “hope makers” is in itself an effort to look for bright spots in the region and to champion those responsible for them. As well as helping the winners financially, it also provides them with a high-profile platform to highlight the issues so close to their hearts These causes can be a rare syndrome that affects a relatively small number of people, such the children cared for by Mr Zainoun, or more common problems.
This can be seen in the work of two other nominees whose work was honoured at Sunday’s award ceremony. Egypt’s Samar Nadeem offers shelter to neglected elderly mothers who have been condemned to a life on the streets after being abandoned by their families. Khadija Al Qarti, another Moroccan, opened her home to female cancer patients after losing her husband to the disease. Taking in 30 patients a day, Ms Al Qarti gives them food, drink and a place to sleep for free. In the past 15 years, she has helped about 60,000 women. The work of these two formidable women, as well as helping the individuals involved, also highlights societal issues around cancer and health care for women more broadly.
Exposure that highlights the winners’ capability and reputation boosts their credibility and puts them on stronger footing to seek more financial and logistical support
The power of Arab Hope Makers and awards like it lies in the attention that they can direct to such issues. Too many charities and individual humanitarians struggle to raise awareness and attract enough funding. Exposure that highlights the winners’ capability and reputation boosts their credibility and puts them on stronger footing to seek more financial and logistical support. Arab Hope Makers also presents a valuable networking opportunity, sharing skills and experience to better help those in need.
Mohammed Al Gergawi, UAE Minister of Cabinet Affairs and Secretary General of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives, has described Arab Hope Makers as “a realistic call to combat despair and negativity by focusing on the positive within our Arab communities”. Celebrating those who put others first – day in, day out – is a vital tonic against fatalism.
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
$1,000 award for 1,000 days on madrasa portal
Daily cash awards of $1,000 dollars will sweeten the Madrasa e-learning project by tempting more pupils to an education portal to deepen their understanding of math and sciences.
School children are required to watch an educational video each day and answer a question related to it. They then enter into a raffle draw for the $1,000 prize.
“We are targeting everyone who wants to learn. This will be $1,000 for 1,000 days so there will be a winner every day for 1,000 days,” said Sara Al Nuaimi, project manager of the Madrasa e-learning platform that was launched on Tuesday by the Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, to reach Arab pupils from kindergarten to grade 12 with educational videos.
“The objective of the Madrasa is to become the number one reference for all Arab students in the world. The 5,000 videos we have online is just the beginning, we have big ambitions. Today in the Arab world there are 50 million students. We want to reach everyone who is willing to learn.”
UK-EU trade at a glance
EU fishing vessels guaranteed access to UK waters for 12 years
Co-operation on security initiatives and procurement of defence products
Youth experience scheme to work, study or volunteer in UK and EU countries
Smoother border management with use of e-gates
Cutting red tape on import and export of food
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
Maestro
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UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
Landfill in numbers
• Landfill gas is composed of 50 per cent methane
• Methane is 28 times more harmful than Co2 in terms of global warming
• 11 million total tonnes of waste are being generated annually in Abu Dhabi
• 18,000 tonnes per year of hazardous and medical waste is produced in Abu Dhabi emirate per year
• 20,000 litres of cooking oil produced in Abu Dhabi’s cafeterias and restaurants every day is thrown away
• 50 per cent of Abu Dhabi’s waste is from construction and demolition
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