Tackling juvenile crime, protecting children from abuse and helping people with mental health problems are among the key aims of a Dubai government strategy set out on Wednesday.
Experts on the front lines dealing with such cases leant their voices to a two-day Creative Labs session held in Dubai with the aim of ensuring the success of government initiatives.
“This helps put together concrete action plans on how we can either accelerate existing initiatives, reach targets by 2021 or discuss challenges and obstacles that hinder us from achieving our aim,” said Aisha Miran, assistant secretary general for strategy, management and governance with the Executive Council of Dubai, which organised the sessions.
‘Safeguard our Kids,’ an initiative handled by the Community Development Authority to provide a secure environment for children, was among eight topics discussed on Wednesday.
“We want to ensure that we have the right mechanisms in place, the right policies, procedures and services to protect a child from abuse,” said Ms Miran.
“But if that child is abused how can we deal with that child? So we have people from different backgrounds, from the security services, social sector talking about how they can ensure rehabilitation and inclusion of the children back into the community.
“We also want to be able to detect cases early and ensure we have a central data base rather than a scattered effort.”
The projects are wide ranging from ‘No going back’ handled by the Dubai Police to deter youth and juvenile crime to ‘Art Everywhere’ that will use art to improve a patient’s sense of wellbeing.
Three hospitals including Hatta, Al Jalila and Latifa will be redecorated with art work to impact the healing process and help the patients’ recovery process.
‘With Hope, Dubai’, on the subject of mental health, was also discussed on Wednesday with a focus on how to spread awareness and remove any stigma linked to mental illness. The sessions were run by Dubai Health Authority and the Community Development Authority.
“We already have a strategy in place but we want to talk about how better to identify mental health risks early on and once diagnosed how can this be treated. How can we make young people aware? We want to bring the health authorities and the community together,” Ms Miran said.
The World Health Organisation listed depression as the leading cause of ill health and disability worldwide in March last year with rates rising by more than 18 per cent since 2005.
The illness commonly a high risk factor for suicide, that claims hundreds of thousands of lives each year. Due to lack of support for mental health combined with the fear of stigma, many do not get the treatment they require to live healthy lives, a WHO report revealed.
The government initiative was backed by health professionals.
“The barriers we face are empowering people to access services. With education we can disseminate more information,” said Dr Yaseen Aslam, consultant psychiatrist and medical director of The Psychiatry and Therapy centre in Dubai Healthcare City.
“Awareness can be spread through such government campaigns, by providing increased resources in schools, colleges and communities, making sure children in schools have access to school counsellors for psychological issues.”
Among the signs to watch for in children are behavioural changes, social isolation and withdrawal, Dr Aslam said.
“Children become more detached and uncommunicative. There may be a sudden deterioration in academic performance,” he said.
The programmes also tackle ways of making Emiratis financially independent.
The ‘Empower Me’ project seeks to enable and encourage UAE nationals to join the work force as entrepreneurs or as employees in the private or public sector.
Previously, similar Creative Lab sessions have resulted in awards such as the Mohammed bin Rashid programme for distinguished students aimed to improve the performance of Emirati students, a popular librarians’ award, ratings for small and medium enterprises, plans for court case directives within a single day.
The burning issue
The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.
Read part four: an affection for classic cars lives on
Read part three: the age of the electric vehicle begins
Read part one: how cars came to the UAE
BABYLON
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Zayed Sustainability Prize
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
MATCH INFO
Cricket World Cup League Two
Oman, UAE, Namibia
Al Amerat, Muscat
Results
Oman beat UAE by five wickets
UAE beat Namibia by eight runs
Namibia beat Oman by 52 runs
UAE beat Namibia by eight wickets
UAE v Oman - abandoned
Oman v Namibia - abandoned
Army of the Dead
Director: Zack Snyder
Stars: Dave Bautista, Ella Purnell, Omari Hardwick, Ana de la Reguera
Three stars
More from Neighbourhood Watch:
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Zayed Sustainability Prize
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
More from Neighbourhood Watch:
Company Profile
Company name: Yeepeey
Started: Soft launch in November, 2020
Founders: Sagar Chandiramani, Jatin Sharma and Monish Chandiramani
Based: Dubai
Industry: E-grocery
Initial investment: $150,000
Future plan: Raise $1.5m and enter Saudi Arabia next year
Various Artists
Habibi Funk: An Eclectic Selection Of Music From The Arab World (Habibi Funk)
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
The five pillars of Islam
1. Fasting
2. Prayer
3. Hajj
4. Shahada
5. Zakat
Zayed Sustainability Prize
COMPANY PROFILE
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Total funding: Self funded
ICC Women's T20 World Cup Asia Qualifier 2025, Thailand
UAE fixtures
May 9, v Malaysia
May 10, v Qatar
May 13, v Malaysia
May 15, v Qatar
May 18 and 19, semi-finals
May 20, final
Volunteers offer workers a lifeline
Community volunteers have swung into action delivering food packages and toiletries to the men.
When provisions are distributed, the men line up in long queues for packets of rice, flour, sugar, salt, pulses, milk, biscuits, shaving kits, soap and telecom cards.
Volunteers from St Mary’s Catholic Church said some workers came to the church to pray for their families and ask for assistance.
Boxes packed with essential food items were distributed to workers in the Dubai Investments Park and Ras Al Khaimah camps last week. Workers at the Sonapur camp asked for Dh1,600 towards their gas bill.
“Especially in this year of tolerance we consider ourselves privileged to be able to lend a helping hand to our needy brothers in the Actco camp," Father Lennie Connully, parish priest of St Mary’s.
Workers spoke of their helplessness, seeing children’s marriages cancelled because of lack of money going home. Others told of their misery of being unable to return home when a parent died.
“More than daily food, they are worried about not sending money home for their family,” said Kusum Dutta, a volunteer who works with the Indian consulate.
THE DEALS
Hamilton $60m x 2 = $120m
Vettel $45m x 2 = $90m
Ricciardo $35m x 2 = $70m
Verstappen $55m x 3 = $165m
Leclerc $20m x 2 = $40m
TOTAL $485m
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
The five pillars of Islam
Last-16 Europa League fixtures
Wednesday (Kick-offs UAE)
FC Copenhagen (0) v Istanbul Basaksehir (1) 8.55pm
Shakhtar Donetsk (2) v Wolfsburg (1) 8.55pm
Inter Milan v Getafe (one leg only) 11pm
Manchester United (5) v LASK (0) 11pm
Thursday
Bayer Leverkusen (3) v Rangers (1) 8.55pm
Sevilla v Roma (one leg only) 8.55pm
FC Basel (3) v Eintracht Frankfurt (0) 11pm
Wolves (1) Olympiakos (1) 11pm
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
WISH
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Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
THE BIO
Born: Mukalla, Yemen, 1979
Education: UAE University, Al Ain
Family: Married with two daughters: Asayel, 7, and Sara, 6
Favourite piece of music: Horse Dance by Naseer Shamma
Favourite book: Science and geology
Favourite place to travel to: Washington DC
Best advice you’ve ever been given: If you have a dream, you have to believe it, then you will see it.
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
