In line with du’s nation-wide pledge to distribute 12,000 books to 226 school libraries in support of the UAE’s Year of Reading, His Excellency Marwan Ahmad Al-Sawaleh, Undersecretary of Support Services at the UAE Ministry of Education and Hala Badri, du’s Executive Vice President of Brand and Communication visited Al Nokhba School for Boys on November 21st. During the visit both His Excellency and Ms. Badri engaged the students in interactive reading sessions and stories from their own experiences to truly bring the importance of reading to life, while encouraging the youth to pick up more books and read.
“Education is where the seeds of our knowledge economy sprout, and we are pleased to be a part of this incredibly gracious initiative that du has undertaken to support our wise leadership to inculcate reading as a daily pastime in the lives of our youth,” said His Excellency Marwan Ahmad Al-Sawaleh.
“In addition to improving learning and vocabulary, reading strengthens our analytical thinking, which is an extremely important skill to make sense of the world around us,” said Hala Badri. “At du, we’re encouraging people of all ages to embrace the Year of Reading, and especially the UAE’s youth. These young people will be our future leaders and innovators, so our vision of building a knowledge economy depends largely on them. I was thrilled with my visit to Al Nokhba School for Boys to help encourage their students to read and to emphasize the importance of books in our culture and society.”
President HH Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan declared 2016 the year of reading in the UAE as an initiative to create a generation of book lovers and consolidate the UAE’s position as a global capital for culture and knowledge. It aims to help establish a knowledge-based economy which is sustainable and homegrown in the UAE by encouraging students to read more often and to become life-long book lovers as a result.
du has supported this initiative in several ways throughout the year, including contributing charity proceedings from the Emirati plan to support the Year of Reading, donating AED 3 million to provide 300,000 books to refugee camps and schools around the world during Ramadan, and collaborating with Kalimat publishing house to donate around 12,000 books. The telecommunications company hopes to inspire other companies to contribute to the Year of Reading and to actively participate in it themselves.
