ERC launches series of student volunteer programmes

The Emirates Red Crescent, ERC, has confirmed its efforts, during the Year of Giving, to expand its partnership with the Ministry of Education and support the Ministry’s many programmes, with the aim of engraining the culture of charity work among students, by supporting related programmes and activities.

The ERC explained that the level of funding allocated to support education on an annual basis has reached over AED25 million, as part of its overall support for the ministry’s programmes. The ERC also trains students who volunteer in its programmes, while creating specialist volunteer teams.

The ERC further supports many other volunteer programmes, most notably the launch of the Aoun Award for Community Services in schools across the country, which aims to strengthen the spirit of volunteer work, encourage social responsibility among the youth, and establish the culture of volunteer work within the community.

The award, which receives an annual donation of AED1.5 million from the ERC, targets students from all age groups, including from government schools, and kindergarten students were recently included, this year, to participate in the award.

"Crescent’s Cubs" teams will be formed from students of kindergarten age, along with "School Students’ Crescent" teams from around the country’s schools, through the launch of a training plan involving volunteer departments, to encourage these student teams to identify the UAE’s humanitarian role and its duty towards the needy from other countries.

The volunteers will be trained during first aid and other specialised knowledge sessions. The ERC’s programmes target innovative student, exceptional educational supervisors and proactive parents, who are considered the main cornerstone for all categories and the main components of the Aoun Award.

The ERC noted that standards were specified for the award’s arbitration, along with the financial rewards for the three winning places during its next annual award ceremony in May 2018, while clarifying that the previous school year, 2016-2017, witnessed the participation of 189 schools and over 5,000 students.

The ERC will also launch, as part of its developmental programmes, the "Nibras Programme" (Lamp Progamme) which will train educators and enable them to launch many awareness programmes, which is part of the training plan designated for the School Students’ Crescent teams.