Charity is always welcome but especially during Ramadan, with zakat (around 2.5 percent of annual income) being one of the five pillars of Islam. Here are some UAE schemes you can either volunteer with or donate to as part of your Ramadan charity.
- Adopt-A-Camp: Help improve the lives of 50,000+ laborers in 50 camps. No Ramadan care packages this year but you can still help with groceries, storage, transportation or even just awareness.
- Beit Al Khair Society: Established in the UAE since 1989, provides help to orphans, students, widows and debtors. It has an online donation page but it is not currently working.
- Dubai Cares: Reaching 10m children in 35 developing countries by providing classrooms, water, food, toilets, teachers and books. You can donate online.
- Emirates Airline Foundation: Make a donation on-board, with Skywards miles or via bank transfer or check to help children in need, regardless of geographical, political or religious boundaries.
- Emirates Red Crescent: You can provide monthly sponsorship for one of 59,000 orphans under the Emirates Red Crescent’s wing, or donate to Syrian refugees.
- Noor Dubai: Trying to create a world free from blindness. Donate AED 15 for a pair of glasses or AED 30 for a cataract operation.
- Operation Smile UAE: Donate 110 – 880 AED to help pay for an operation to make a child with a harelip smile again.
- UAE Zakat Fund: Calculate zakat and pay zakat directly with the UAE Zakat Fund.
- Water Aid: What could be a more appropriate charity to donate to during Ramadan? The UAE Water Aid campaign concludes 16 July. To donate to #UAEWaterAid, text the word (water) to the following etisalat or du numbers – 8025 to donate Dh25; 8075 to donate Dh75; 8150 to donate Dh150; 8250 to donate Dh250; 8500 to donate Dh500
- Volunteer in the UAE: If you want to help out and volunteer rather than donating money, go to this site.
- Zayed Giving Initiative: A UAE government initiative that runs several charitable schemes such as the One Million Volunteers campaign, the National Emergency Medical Response Programme (Estijaba), Training Without Borders and the Giving Hands campaign.
[Also read: Make donating to charity part of your 2014 plan | More on Ramadan]