Academic partnership to benefit orphan students in the UAE

DUBAI // Two students have received full scholarships to begin courses at the University of Wollongong in Dubai in September.

They are the first to benefit from a new initiative between the university and the Awqaf and Minors Foundation (Amaf), which cares for people who are not financially independent.

The aim of the partnership, which will offer scholarships each year to orphans, is to provide access to education for all.

Prof Trevor Spedding, the president of the university, said: “We are very privileged to offer these scholarships to students who wouldn’t necessarily normally be able to come to university.

“The University of Wollongong is all about diversity. We believe in diversity. Students who study here come from more than a hundred countries and this is another demonstration that we want to make education accessible to all, irrespective of race, religion or any other background.”

The students, who are currently supported by Amaf, had strong grades, but needed financial help to pursue higher education, said Prof Spedding.

The deputy premier of New South Wales, Australia, Andrew Stoner, who attended the launch of the partnership, said: “I’m just thrilled to see these two, which have already individually done good things for the relationship [between the UAE and Australia], come together to do even more good things for the relationship.”

The students will continue to be supported by Amaf during their time at university.

Tayeb Al Rais, the secretary general of Amaf, said it helped people of all ages. “It could be an 80-year-old man or a 100-year-old woman. It could be a young man who has no control over his expenditure,” he said.

The organisation assists those in need of financial aid and those who do not know how to handle their funds. Its services are provided free of charge. However, when they invest on behalf of a rich child, a percentage of the funds are deducted as zakat, which is given to the poor.

“The relationship between the poor minor and a rich minor is pretty tight, because here [is the idea of] ‘I have money, you don’t have money, I’ll spend on you’.” said Mr Al Rais. “Of course, that’s only a part of the funds that we spend on the minors.”

Amaf helps 2,650 children, 80 per cent of whom need financial assistance to survive, he said.

“At the end of the year, we on average spend anywhere between Dh26 million to Dh28 million on minors.”

The foundation receives government support, which goes to its five sections: health, education, Islamic affairs, righteousness and social care.

Other funds come in the form of investments they help young people to make. “We are asset managers, basically. We invest on behalf of the community, for the community,” said Mr Al Rais.

As for the partnership with the university, he said the idea “just clicked”.

“To me, it is a sense of accomplishment,” he said. “What we do, we do for them, we do it for the community, we do it for the minors, and the more that we do means we can help the minors and even go out and help others.”

The University of Wollongong has more than 4,000 students, from 100 countries, and 25 accredited degree programmes.

Amaf, which was established in 2004, is involved in several other projects, including The Family Village, which will be Dubai’s first orphanage, and what is set to be the first environmentally-friendly mosque in the UAE.