Friday, the 21st of November 2009, marked the 20th anniversary of the United Nation's Universal Children's Day. The same day that thousands of UAE residents took to the streets of Dubai as an act of goodwill to represent all those children in third world countries, deprived of an education solely because they have no access to clean drinking water in their schools.
It was no ordinary walk, this. At exactly 9.00am on that Friday morning, an aerial view of the Jumeirah Beach Road would’ve shown you a sea (pardon the pun) of blue. Of blue buckets balanced on the heads of the UAE community participating in the Dubai Cares’ Water Bucket Walk.
In order to signify these impoverished children's daily trek of (on average) 6kms just to collect a bucket of water and back, Dubai Cares (the UAE-based philanthropic establishment founded by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai) decided to put together an event that would not only give people the opportunity to contribute towards a child's well-being, but also to symbolically represent their unfortunate circumstances.
The registration fee of Dhs.30, not only bought you a bright blue bucket to keep you company on the walk, but also promised to deliver one child’s access to clean drinking water for a year! Which would explain the throngs of schools, corporations, men, women and children of all ages, all up and ready by 8.00am to register themselves for a walk they hoped would actually enable them as singular individuals, to make a considerable difference in the fight against poverty.
Dubai’s resident DJ, DJ BLISS kept the ‘Bucketeers’ entertained throughout the event, while the presence of Dubai Drums’ got everyone in the spirit of the walk. The infamous Freej characters where there to show their support as well, walking (buckets in tow) the entire 3kms with the rest of the participants.
The response was overwhelming, proof being when the final count showed that in actuality more than 5,000 people had registered and taken part that day. More overwhelming, was the satisfaction in knowing that ‘because of us’ more than 5,000 children will be able to go to school again.
Friday, the 21st of November 2009, marked the 20th anniversary of the United Nation's Universal Children's Day. The same day that thousands of UAE residents took to the streets of Dubai as an act of goodwill to represent all those children in third world countries, deprived of an education solely because they have no access to clean drinking water in their schools.
