Sharjah does wonders with a Big Heart

Charity, as the age-old adage goes, begins at home. It entails a lot of generosity, humaneness and compassion. Sharjah’s Big Heart Foundation has all these qualities. It is a philanthropic foundation officially established in May 2015, by Her Highness Sheikha Jawaher Bint Mohammed Al Qasimi, Wife of His Highness the Ruler of Sharjah and Chairperson of the Supreme Council for Family Affairs.

It seeks to safeguard the rights and improve the lives of vulnerable children and families worldwide, particularly in the Arab regions.

In its latest drive, the Big Heart Foundation (TBHF) and NAMA Women Advancement Establishment (NAMA), have teamed up to support a remote learning project in Nigeria benefiting up to 65,000 primary and secondary students, especially girls.

With many schools still out of bounds for students online education has become the need of the hour.

Aimed at boosting the distance learning activities of school students impacted by the closure of schools, the three-month educational project, implemented by ACE Charity, was broadcast via radio, and reached up to 65,000 primary and secondary school goers across the five Nigerian states of Abuja, Kaduna, Kano, Borno and Adamawa.

The project’s funding requirement of $57,781 (Dhs212,225.57) was fulfilled by NAMA Fund – a fund established by NAMA to support development projects for women in the Middle East, North Africa and South Asia. The funding was mobilised through TBHF’s Girl Child Fund in partnership with Malala fund, co-founded by Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai.

It provides educational resources in reading, writing, and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and maths) activities through radio to ensure the dissemination of education to students.

“In a crisis like COVID-19, girls and young women are the first to be removed from school and the last to return,” said Malala Yousafzai. The Malala Fund states that girls account for 60% of Nigeria’s 10 million out-of-school children, while according to the Unicef, one in every five of the world’s out-of-school children is in Nigeria.

Sample some of the Big Heart’s humanitarian campaigns. In April, it launched a COVID-19 response drive, called ‘Support Knows No Safe Distance’. Sheikha Jawaher made a global call for concerted action to intensify efforts to protect marginalised and vulnerable groups from the devastating impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

The campaign’s initial operations will focus on supporting healthcare capacities in refugee and internally displaced people, IDPs, sites, in Jordan, Palestine, Lebanon, Bangladesh and Kenya.

In August, it announced its Salam Beirut campaign, an emergency aid and relief drive from Sharjah, following the tragic explosion in Beirut port, which claimed over 150 lives and left an estimated 300,000 homeless.

Salam Beirut aims to bring relief and succour to the thousands affected whose numbers continue to rise as Lebanese officials pick through the wreckage.

An October report said the Big Heart was implementing five humanitarian projects in Pakistan, to create more opportunities in education and employment for the refugees and the marginalised in the country.

TBHF’s funding, which amounts to more than US$1 million, will be utilised to support the nation’s educational infrastructure enabling access to a larger number of children and youth, and improve vocational training in Pakistan.

Last year, it renewed its commitment to helping refugees, including internally displaced persons, IDPs, and returnees in Syria, and those at the Zaatari Camp in Jordan, with a financial grant of Dhs2.6 million for two projects being carried out by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR.

Truly, the Big Heart is the high point of benevolence, the essence of kindness, the pivot of understanding. It redresses the problems of the distressed and the underprivileged, providing them help instantly.