More than 58,000 GEMS students to give helping hand to the community in support of Sewa Day

GEMS students, parents and staff joined thousands of individuals around the globe today to celebrate Sewa Day. With environmental, charitable and community orientated events planned throughout schools over the next three months, 58,000 GEMS students will have been a part of 115 activities before the end of the year. Over 9000 students have already participated in Sewa Day activities this academic year.

Sewa Day is a universal concept which involves performing an act of kindness without expectation of reward and is celebrated annually on October 6^th in different countries around the world. Sewa activities will stretch throughout the months of October and November at GEMS Schools in the UAE.

Through the Varkey GEMS Foundation, the philanthropic arm of GEMS Education, students, parents and staff were encouraged to volunteer across a wide range of activities to experience the joy of giving in its truest sense.

The students have and will continue to volunteer  for activities including visiting old peoples’ homes, recycling and clean-up drives, hospital and therapy centre visits, buddy programmes with groups supporting special needs children, tree planting, food and gift box collection and distribution, to name a few. GEMS students and staff in the UAE are joined by their peers at GEMS Schools in the US and UK, who will also take part in similar activities throughout the week.

Dr. Shabana Muzammil, a parent from Our Own English High School - Dubai spoke highly of the values being taught through this initiative. “The voluntary collection of food by students and staff was an initiative act which taught students that there is nothing so easy to learn as experience and nothing so hard to apply for sharing, caring and giving back to the society in which we live. My heart felt satisfied to see the students at their tender age giving packets of food to the poor and needy readily and selflessly,” Dr Muzammil said.

The Sewa Day initiative encourages participants to live by the principals of kindness and public service. Through the wide range of activities organized across the GEMS network for students aged from 3-17 years, they were encouraged to think about their local community and the positive impact they can have on others if they volunteered their time.