ABU DHABI // The capital will this week host two events that will examine how to increase community involvement in volunteering. The Emirates Conference on Volunteering and the Gulf Volunteering Forum will be held concurrently this Saturday and next Sunday. The events have been organised under the patronage of Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak, the wife of the late Sheikh Zayed and the chairwoman of the General Women's Union and the Family Development Foundation (FDF).
The foundation will take part in both events, the official news agency, WAM, reported. The conference and forum would gather "a host of elite thinkers, scholars and representatives of national, regional and foreign voluntary organisations," according to Maryam al Rumaithi, the director general of the FDF. She said the conference, first held last year, would underline the UAE's experience in voluntary sector work.
The events will also highlight the work of the Giving Hands Initiative, which offers treatment and humanitarian aid to underprivileged and impoverished patients across the world. The programme was launched in 2007 under the patronage of Sheikha Fatima and with the assistance of Sheikh Hamdan bin Zayed, the Ruler's Representative in the Western Region and chairman of the UAE Red Crescent Authority.
chamilton@thenational.ae
