75,000 down, 925,000 children to go…

75,000 down, 925,000 children to go… Amanda Fisher / 14 July 2013 At least 75,000 needy children will get new clothes, just two days into a campaign to clothe one million deprived children around the world, launched by His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai. Days after Thursday’s campaign launch, du announced on Saturday it would donate Dh3 million to the campaign, which would need to raise Dh40 million to clothe all one million of the world’s neediest children in a Dh40 outfit. Du Brand and Communications Executive Vice-President Hala Badri said the telecom provider, which is chanelling the donations alongside etisalat as the campaign is SMS run, was bracing for a wave of new donations as a result of its generous pledge. “We hope so, we like to lead by example and we really hope we see a lot of people enocouraged to follow suit as well. “As soon as there’s an announcement people rush to give, so we also hope that by our anouncement we encourage other people and other companies to give as well.” Badri said she was unsure whether rival etisalat intended to make a similar donation. “This is something we came up with independently. I’m sure a lot of companies, regardlesss of whether it’s etisalat or not, whenever there is a call from our leadership a lot of businesses always answer this, there is a lot of goodwill (in residents).” Both etisalat and du were partnering with Shaikh Mohammed in order to achieve the campaign’s goals. “It’s only natural because we’re both telecom operators…we have access to more than 6.6 million customers so from an operators point of view we can reach them very fast.” Badri said while there were many worthy causes searching for money in the country, she hoped people would make the effort to give to this one. “I know there are a lot of campaigns running but…when I first saw this campaign I thought if I had to wake up in the morning and tell my kids they wouldn’t have new clothes for Eid that would be the most difficult thing to do.” Du was also running an internal fundraising campaign at their office, though it was not clear how much had been raised yet, she said. “Previously we’ve raised anything between Dh50,000 to Dh150,000 which is quite a signicant amount from around 1,900 employees.” Badri said it was too early to know how much had been raised through the SMS donation campaign yet, though she expected the residents’ generosity would exceed the Dh40 million mark “knowing the culture of the UAE”. In order to donate, etisalat and du users just need to send the word “dress” to a short code which determines the amount donated. Texts sent to 7040 will contribute Dh40 to the campaign, while people can donate any multiple of 40 by just texting the amount prefixed by a 7. And those who do can expect courtesy in store, with a thank you message being sent straight back. –   amanda@khaleejtimes.com CODES To donate Dh40, and dress one child, send an SMS to 7040 To donate Dh80, and dress two children, send an SMS to 7080 To donate Dh160, and dress four children, send an SMS to 7160 To donate Dh240, and dress six children, send an SMS to 7240 To donate Dh400, and dress 10 children, send an SMS to 7400 Taylor Scott International