Since last year, the UAE government has been targeting to introduce initiatives that would promote the value of tolerance, which to this day, remains an integral aspect of the country’s success as a global nation, and home to over 200 nationalities, co-existing in peace and unity, under the vision of the UAE’s founding father, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan.
As the Holy Month of Ramadan has come to pass, and residents are now celebrating the Eid period, we take a look at the achievements of the UAE under the banner of its theme for 2019: Year of Tolerance.
UAE Receives Status as Global Tolerance Centre: Report
The UAE has continued to live up to its mandate of promoting values of cross-cultural and religious interaction, tolerance, harmony and peaceful coexistence, during the month of May, as shared in a report by WAM.
The country launched various programmes and engaged in numerous activities and events to confirm its status as a global centre of tolerance.
Here are the highlights of the national government’s efforts in realizing its goals for 2019: Year of Tolerance:
- Pope Francis, head of the Roman Catholic Church, has affirmed during an audience at the Vatican with Sara Almahri, Acting Charge d’Affaires of the UAE Embassy in Madrid, that tolerance and the UAE are ”two sides of the same coin”.
- On May 24, the country launched a massive campaign to help support hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees who were forced to flee Myanmar. Under the initiative, organisers hoped to provide education, food, health services, sanitation and shelter to some of the more than 1.2 million people, who are now living in camps in India, Bangladesh and elsewhere.
- Until Friday, May 30th, the nationwide campaign raised a total of AED 65 million.
- During Ramadan, the UAE leaders pardoned 4,449 prisoners of different nationalities serving various jail sentences, after an order from President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan. Furthermore, His Highness President Sheikh Khalifa also pledged to settle the financial obligations of the 3,005 released prisoners in a gesture that reflects his willingness to provide prisoners with an opportunity to start a new life and alleviate the hardships of their families.
- President His Highness Sheikh Khalifa ordered the release of more than 3,000 inmates, including 572 who hail from Pakistan, for which Pakistani Prime Minister, Imran Khan, has thanked the UAE’s rulers for pardoning hundreds of Pakistani prisoners in the spirit of Ramadan.
- The UAE Water Aid Foundation, Suqia, launched its annual Ramadan campaign to provide drinking water to mosques and iftar tents throughout the Holy Month of Ramadan.
- For the second consecutive year, Suqia’s Ramadan campaign spans different countries around the world in collaboration with the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Charity and Humanitarian Establishment.
- The Ramadan campaign has reached 13 countries around the world.
World leaders such as Pope Francis, and the UAE’s supporters including Dr Mohammed Ateeq Al Falahi, Secretary-General of the Emirates Red Crescent, acknowledged that the UAE has now entered a new phase through which the national government is able to extend support to those who are in need of help, thereby bannering its commitment to upholding goodwill and tolerance wherever there is opportunity to do so.
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