Dubai Customs celebrated the “International Volunteer Day”, which falls on 5th December, by honoring 180 male and female volunteers who took part in 80 different initiatives launched by Dubai Customs during 2010. The celebration aimed at reaffirming the importance of the voluntary work in developing societies and stressing on encouraging social participation as well as forming policies that can generate voluntary work.
The celebration took place on Thursday 9th December at Dubai University hall with the attendance of Mrs. Feryal Tawakul, Executive Director, Community Affairs and Government Partnership Division at Dubai Customs, and Mr. Ali Maqhawi, Director of the Custom’s Airport Operations as well as a number of departments’ top officials. 130 volunteers of Dubai Customs staffs and other departments have been honored during the celebration.
Tawakul delivered a speech in which she mentioned that the objective of the celebration is to extend thanks and gratitude to volunteers who participated in the department’s initiatives, and that their participation contributed a lot in the success of these initiatives.
Tawakul praised the initiative spirit of the volunteers and said: “Your voluntary work reflects your forward thinking and your feeling of responsibility, especially that we are living at a time where the materialistic attitude prevails over other values, and the culture of voluntary work is still very limited”.
Volunteers hail from different government and private departments such as Dubai Police, Dubai municipality, Social Development Authority, Scuba Company in Dubai, Emirates Association for Diving, as well as Dubai Customs itself.
Honored volunteers had participated in different Dubai Customs’ imitative such as “My Voluntary Environment” initiative which coincided with the Environment National Day and targeted school students to raise their awareness towards the theme. Some other initiatives included participation in the security education week that was organized by Dubai Police, and other important initiatives.
The department provides volunteers with a data base to help them select the field they like to take part in. the field of volunteering is wide and diversified such as environment protection, social service, supporting elders and widows, and many other charity works.
At the end of the celebration, Mrs. Feryal Tawakul and Mr. Ali Al-Maqhawi awarded the volunteers with certificates of appreciation and gifts and wished them continual success in that field.