Saturday: 17 July 2010:
Badah: Voluntary work saves money estimated at billions
Brigadier Mohammad Saleh Badah Al Awadhi, Acting Director General of Public Relations at MoI said "The UAE Higher Leadership has instilled the concept of voluntary work during the last three decades in the country's nationals inside or outside the country. Our Higher Leadership believes that voluntary work contributes directly and effectively to maintenance of national gains achieved in all areas. The most important indicators of a nation’s progress and development is the size of its peoples participation in voluntary work. In fact, voluntary work saves huge amounts of money estimated at billions and participants gain important experiences".
He has made this statement during a workshop organized by the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Community Development about (The Concept of Voluntary Work and its Importance), at the Ministry Centre as part of the national project activities the Summer of My Home Land 2010.
Badah also said "Voluntary work is considered as a humanitarian and national work which seeks to serve any person regardless of his language, beliefs, nationality and gender. The concept of voluntary concept is very old. It has undergone several stages. Now it has structures, organizations and institutions all over the world. It is important to urge community members to join voluntary work. Voluntary work is deeply-rooted in the UAE, although concepts change from one time to another", added Badah.
He has stated some examples of cooperation and solidarity among community members though they are not well organized or institutional, including charitable organizations and agencies, especially the Red Crescent Authority and its well known activities inside and outside the country.
The he has presented a short brief on the early beginnings of voluntary work around the world and made some comparisons, in terms of volunteers number, conditions of volunteering, objectives of voluntary work, tasks and areas of voluntary work.