The Alumnae Association of the Higher Colleges Technology -Dubai, Women's Campus (HCT-Dubai) has recently launched an academic social responsibility programme for the parentless secondary school students titled "It's Just the Beginning" in cooperation with the Ministry of Social Affairs and Development, and the Dubai Police General Headquarters; the official main sponsor of the event.

Ayesha Shukrallah, a member of the association and organizer of the event said that the programme is offered by the HCT-Dubai Alumnae Association to theUAE nationals, mainly the parentless students to motivate them to pursue their studies and guide them to make the right major choices.

More than 80 orphaned students from the government secondary schools in Dubai took part in the event, which is aimed to educate students about the importance of making the right decisions on majors.

The Assistant Undersecretary for Social Affairs Sector at the Ministry of Social Affairs, Hussain Al Sheikh, highlighted the attention accorded by the UAE to develop human resources to be qualified enough to shoulder responsibilities and fulfill ambitious development aspirations of the country in view of local and international changes.

"Many students expect that we, as institutions and society interested in national issues, will inspire and instill in them spirit of challenge to complete their education," Al Sheikh said in his opening address at the event. "When incentives meet their own motives, we will for sure help them get better engaged in education," he added.

Al Sheikh cited the present-day changes, which he said makes it more imperative to mobilize highly educated human resources, who keep abreast with the most updated technologies to push forward sustainable and all-out development.
He underlined the importance of the "It's just the Beginning" programme, being a practical chance to enable students to decide on their appropriate majors and pursue their career-orientated education.

He, moreover, praised the HCT-Dubai initiative for meeting some needs of future enrollees, especially the parentless students living on a limited income. This gesture includes exempting such students of fees for laptop use, meals and transportation services. "This exemption marks in itself an incentive for educational brilliance. This initiative will be offered to 100 students in Dubai and will be extended to other emirates in the future," he said.

Meanwhile, Raqia Mohammed, a student at Al Raya School in Dubai, said in an address on behalf on her colleagues that the programme is part of attention paid by all state institutions in the orphaned students. "The parentless students' cause has educational, humanitarian and ethical implications in terms of integrating them into the community life and the support offered to them from state institutions to motivate them to achieve success so as to contribute to development in our beloved UAE," she added.

According to her, the new programme is designed to introduce students to majors at the college and match them to personal interests and career choices. "Thus, this programme will allow participants to actively interact with whatever is offered by the involved institutions," she said. Raqia thanked all institutions supporting the programme, hoping it will be a source of national pride.