There are approximately 70 orphans and 150 poor students at Zabeel Secondary School for Girls in Dubai who are in need of financial assistance.
Compelled to help these students in some way, their Information Technology teachers from the Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum IT Education Project (ITEP) decided to hold a fundraising exhibition at the school.
ITEP teachers Kholoud Omar, Najla Mohammad Qasim and Laila Mohammad then recruited student volunteers who wanted to help raise money at the exhibition.
The Dubai Public Prosecution Office also provided assistance by sponsoring the event.
Humble beginnings
Each year the high school holds a Computer Day, but this year the fundraising exhibition was held instead.
ITEP teacher Omar said the teachers chose the project for two reasons – to help needy students at the school and to show students how to create products using their acquired IT skills.
"Because we have many poor students at our school, we wanted to invest in them this year," she said.
Omar said they planned to raise at least Dh15,000 and wanted next year's event to be much bigger. "The money will be given to the families taking care of the girls and they will use the money for whatever they need," she added.
Young talent
Over 10 days, the students worked furiously to create handmade notebooks, laptop bags, bandanas, wrist bands, decorated coffee mugs, creative T-shirts, paintings and coupons for sale. All the products were made using the computer skills the students had learnt in their IT classes.
Zainab Shubbar, 16, used her artistic abilities to create beautiful but haunting paintings of war orphans. Since the event was to benefit orphans and poor students, Zainab searched for pictures of war orphans on the internet that she could paint.
"We found many photos but the one I liked the best was of a small Iraqi boy crying over the grave of his father. Another one that touched my heart was a picture of a Palestinian girl who was crying," she said.
Zainab took up painting in grade one and participated in a national competition in which she won first place.
Her two paintings were auctioned at the fundraiser and a representative of the Dubai Public Prosecution Office liked them so much he bid Dh2,000 for each of them.
Handmade creations
Grade 11 student Ghusoon Al Kindi, 17, and her group created designs by computer, which they printed onto notebooks or had framed. They sold them at Dh10 and Dh8 respectively.
Another keen craftswoman was Mona Atef, 17, who transferred Arabic phrases such as 'My dear angel' and 'Remember me' onto coffee mugs that sold for Dh15.
Mona said: "Because some of the girls have lost their fathers, we want to help them by giving them money to buy something for school or home.
"I enjoy helping others. I felt tired [after making the crafts] but when I think about how it will help the girls, I forget about it," she added.
Keen student photographers made money for the fundraiser by inviting cartoon character Um Allawi from the Freej children's show to come and have pictures taken with members of the public for a fee.
Eighteen-year-olds Sana Mohammad, Ashwaq Mohsin, Wedad Al Saqqat, and Kholoud Jameel made wrist bands, mobile phone holders, and personalised laptop covers. They said they "want to help people because these small things can make them happy".
Additional help
Students and teachers at Sharjah American International School, Dubai, donated Dh1,000 to the Zabeel Secondary School for Girls fundraiser.
Nancy Koert and Alana Lyng, teachers at the school, said that they had held a fundraiser of their own and had money left over.
"When we were told about the event, we thought 'wow, what a great idea'. It's a great opportunity to help these orphaned girls," Koert said.
The school's students, from kindergarten to Grade 11, are currently making about 200 bears to be donated to patients at children's hospitals and local autistic centres.
The students raised money to make the bears by holding bake sales and attracting parents' support. Since they had more money than they needed, "we decided a good way to donate the rest of the money was to give it to the school," Koert said.
She said the students were making teddy bears made of felt. "Students are going to be sewing their own bears and [will] donate all the bears to the sick children in the children's hospitals and local autistic centres."
By Amelia Naidoo, Staff Reporter