In a bid to accelerate relief efforts for victims of the prolonged war in Lebanon, Dubai eGovernment has announced the launch of an online donation campaign through its web portal www.dubai.ae/4Lebanon.
The UAE has been extending its full support to Lebanon to provide relief to its people who are suffering for no fault of theirs, and UAE agencies and organisations have been extremely generous in donating money and relief materials. Recognising a need to take more steps to make it convenient for more people to contribute to this cause, Mohammed bin Rashid Humanitarian & Charity Establishment and the Emirati Lebanese Friendship Association requested Dubai eGovernment to create a secure ePayment site, which will enable anyone with a credit card to donate an amount of AED 10 and upwards. Donors can also pay by Direct Debit if they have an account with Commercial Bank of Dubai and the third option is to pay by E-Dirham.
Dubai eGovernment in turn contacted Arab Media Group, Young Arab Leaders forum, and the Red Crescent Society, who extended their whole hearted support for the Online Donation Campaign for Lebanon.
Salem Al Shair, eServices Director, Dubai eGovernment said, “Dubai eGovernment will extend all IT and technological support for The Emirates Campaign undertaken by the Arab Media Group and we urge all other media organizations and charities to join in this noble and humanitarian cause.”
“It is our duty and responsibility to come together and do everything possible to help the people of Lebanon in this time of need. The situation in Lebanon today is far worse than what we have been seeing on our television sets and every dirham collected will prove invaluable considering the number of people who are in dire need of medical supplies, food, clothing and other essentials. We urge everyone in the UAE and around the world to make their donations for this noble cause via our web portal, if they are not able to give money or relief materials directly to aid agencies,” Al Shair said.
The IT team at Dubai eGovernment has created the online donation site at www.dubai.ae/4Lebanon after extensive testing. All donations will be accepted from 1st August, 2006 onwards with the closing date to be determined depending on the status of the humanitarian crisis in the coming weeks.
This means that that any citizen, resident or visitor to the UAE or from any part of the world can visit the website and within a few seconds, he or she can play a role in healing the wounds of innocent people in Lebanon.
“Donating 10 dirhams will certainly not be a burden for a person and if thousands of people log on to donate some money, a huge fund can be created. The public can also be assured that no transaction fees or hidden charges will be charged for making payments through the ePay site. All credit cards including Visa, MasterCard and Amex can be used and all donations collected will be handed over to Mohammed bin Rashid Humanitarian & Charity Establishment to help war victims in Lebanon,” Al Shair concluded.
Dubai eGovernment is a pioneering initiative in the region to provide online services across the spectrum of corporate and community life in the emirate. It also has a vision to integrateindividually automated government departments under the single umbrella of the eGovernment initiative, thus empowering employees across lines of businesses and levels of government, besides facilitating the lives of citizens and customers of the government. Dubai has taken a lead in the region in deploying eGovernment applications and is among the first few governments in the world to provide such integrated services to its citizens. The eGovernment portal (www.dubai.ae) is a single contact point masking the complexity of the bureaucratic procedures, and guiding access to all services in the easiest possible way. In addition, the eGovernment initiative seeks to improve and enhance procedures by maximizing the benefit from technology, so that users from all walks of life will be able to utilize the portal for their specific needs with considerable ease.
