Citizens and residents are being called on to donate palm trees to a crowd endowment park in Dubai to help those in need.
Spanning 15 acres of land, Charity Oasis Park is expected to produce 150 tonnes of dates annually and will contain a charity dates factory whose production will be allocated to disadvantaged members of the UAE community.
“The main purpose of the project is to help the needy through palm trees, which is considered an old charitable concept in the UAE,” said Hussain Lootah, director-general of Dubai Municipality.
The Dh10m project is a collaborative effort between the Municipality and Mohammed bin Rashid International Center for Endowment Consultancy.
Residents willing to donate palm trees, can do so within the next week. The tree should be mature - aged between five to eight years - well-formed, of good root variety and with a length of 1 to 1.5 meters.
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UAE to introduce the world’s first Crowd Endowment Park
UAE’s first Crowd Endowment Park to open in Dubai
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Al Naghal, Al Khalas and Al Khanezi and Al Hilali are among the types of palm trees being accepted, according to the Municipality.
The charity park can house up to 2,100 palm trees and the dates will be distributed to the needy and charitable organisations.
The number of trees each donor can contribute is capped at five in a bid to encourage a larger number of donors.
“Donors can contact the municipality and the trees will be planted and harvested. They are also allowed to plant the trees themselves with the help of municipality workers,” said Mr Lootah.
He said the aim of the charity park is to involve society in charitable deeds.
The concept originates from a 125-year-old custom derived from the Hatta region in UAE, which had the social custom of endowing palms by donating the proceeds into charity and supporting members of the public.
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Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.