100 Days of Giving
Wam.ae: The National Happiness and Positivity Programme launched the "100 Days of Giving" initiative, targeting UAE private and public school students, in co-operation with the UAE Ministry of Education, the Abu Dhabi Education Council, ADEC, and Dubai’s Knowledge and Human Development Authority, KHDA.
The nationwide initiative aims to instil and cultivate the value of giving back to the community through an array of positive activities with students, helping schools and parents at home build a values-based generation of children, characterised by giving.
Overseen by the National Happiness and Positivity Programme, the launch of the 100 Days of Giving initiative forms part of the Giving is Happiness programme, which includes several national initiatives, such as the #1MillionActsOfGiving, the Happiness Journey, and many more.
Ohood bint Khalfan Al Roumi, Minister of State for Happiness, stressed the importance of instilling the value of giving in future generations as an essential cultural component of UAE society.
Al Roumi said, "The 100 Days of Giving initiative, implemented in co-operation with our strategic partners, targets all public and private schools in the UAE and resonates with the Year of Giving, announced by His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE. It embodies the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, who said, ‘happiness is about giving, helping people, and not expecting anything in return.’ The initiative also echoes the statements of His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, who said, ‘Giving is a great value that has been established by H.H. the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, Founding Father of the UAE, and became a unique and distinguishing feature of the UAE.’"
The initiative aims to involve students, parents, as well as educational and administrative bodies within schools in a series of activities that help shape students’ personalities and encourage them to adopt giving as a way of life, the minister continued.
The Minister of State for Happiness praised the partners who supported the National Happiness and Positivity Programme to launch the initiative, namely, the UAE Ministry of Education, the Abu Dhabi Education Council, and the Knowledge and Human Development Authority in Dubai.
The initiative was launched with several activities at UAE public and private schools, attended by Ohood Al Roumi, Jameela Al Muhairi, Minister of State for Public Education, Dr Ali Rashid Al Nuaimi, Director-General of the Abu Dhabi Education Council, Dr Abdullah Al Karam, Chairman of the Board of Directors and Director-General of KHDA, and several officials in the educational sector.
Students are called to document their participation in the initiative’s activities in special notebooks, while school-led activities are to be documented using the hashtag #100_Days_of_Giving on Twitter. The top 10 student projects will be recognised with certificates of gratitude handed out at an awards ceremony.
The Abu Dhabi Education Council, ADEC, in co-operation with the National Happiness and Positivity Programme, also launched an initiative titled "Spreading Good." The idea is to have teachers distribute Spreading Good cards to students, who are then encouraged to go out, do a good deed, and pass the card along to the person they helped and encourage them to do good themselves.
Under the aegis of the 100 Days of Giving initiative, the KHDA launched Together We Teach, where Ohood Al Roumi and Dr Abdullah Al Karam volunteered as teacher’s assistants. This initiative seeks to express gratitude and appreciation for teachers in Dubai’s schools and better understand their experiences and challenges by temporarily taking on their rol