Charity Saher Shaikh is the Founder of Adopt-a-Camp and Founder of Care Packages for Labourers which takes care of labourers in labour camps. It currently has more than 53,700 labourers across 52 labour camps under its wing. Adopt-a-Camp provides educational, health and emotional support, all alongside events to give the men working here fantastic memories and experiences. What motivates you? “What motivates me is the thought that Allah has blessed me with everything a person could want: health, loving family, and food on the table. One day I’ll be facing Him and he’ll ask me that He gave me so much and what did I do with it? I need to have an answer for Him, that I was grateful, that I didn’t take His blessings for granted and that I tried to share them with others. It’s how I was raised.” Can one person make a difference? “Of course. If everyone created little circles of caring around them, eventually those circles of caring would start to overlap and the world would be a much better place. Change starts in our own backyards. Everyone can make a difference.” Visit: www.adoptacamp.ae
Tricia Evans is a Freelance Leadership Coach and volunteer on the Board of Gulf for Good, a Dubai-based charit y. The group organises adventure challenges around the world, in order to raise funds for children’s charities in the areas where these challenges take place. Anyone partaking in a challenge also has to raise sponsorship money which goes directly to the children’s charit y in the area. How long have you been engaging in charity work? “In 1988, I went to Africa (The Gambia) for the first time, and saw first-hand a very different world from the privileged world I lived in – I was shattered by the levels of poverty and abuse we encountered. We immediately sponsored a girl from a village we visited, and made sure that she received a good education. Then when I had my own daughter in 1997, I was driven by the desire for every child in the world to grow up safe, loved and educated – just as my daughter has been.” Can one person really make a difference? “Sadly, people who say and believe that ‘one person can’t make a difference’ rarely do anything much with their lives. One person can make a TREMENDOUS difference and the power of millions of people across the world doing things that make life better for others is a powerful force sweeping the world. We hear so much about wars and the bad things in life, but working with Gulf for Good has exposed me to literally hundreds of people who are doing amazing things to help others.” Visit: www.gulf4good.org
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