Dubai Chamber sponsors UAE’s leading worker volunteer crusade

Mobilizing Emirati employees to volunteer their time during the workday, ENGAGE Dubai recently dispatched its envoys throughout the state to raise the profile of giving back to the community during its sixth annual boots-on-the-ground campaign.

ENGAGE Dubai has earned the rank of the Emirate’s foremost volunteer movement in the business area. Sponsored by the Chamber’s Centre for Responsible Business, its May 19 “Give & Gain Day” saw a 27 percent increase over 2015’s event, with over 760 individuals participating across the emirates of Dubai, Sharjah and Fujairah, donating more than 1,600 hours to benefit businesses, schools and universities, charities and community groups.

“It was indeed a great experience for STS to take part in our very first Give & Gain Day,” M.L. Augustine, School Transport Services LLC managing director, said. “Our staff [is] proud to have the opportunity to support the local community … we aim to demonstrate a strong commitment to the community and the environment as well as increase the commitment and motivation among our staff.”

Sponsored in cooperation with Business in the Community (BITC) U.K., the event linked volunteers with 20 regional organizations including groups supporting patients, advocates for special needs individuals, academic and health programs such as Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders). 

“We’ve always found ENGAGE Dubai to be the ideal partner, in terms of bringing together the corporate world with local not-for-profits to support initiatives such as volunteering,” Alex Malouf, a manager with Procter & Gamble’s Arabian Peninsula branch, said. “We’d like to thank Dubai Chamber for our participation and everything that they have done to support volunteering in Dubai.”

Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s ENGAGE Dubai initiative, active since 2008, strives to unite business and community groups in Dubai, raise the level of employee engagement in their surrounding districts, and perpetuate a strong volunteer ethic. The ENGAGE parent organization was established in 2002 in London and functions in Paris, Frankfurt, Istanbul, Hong Kong and other major metropolitan areas.