Community-based initiative ‘Ramadan Sharing Fridges’ is back this year, with over 60 fridges registered across Dubai to date. The initiative started last year with a single resident setting up a fridge and distributing food and drink donations to those in need in her community. Very quickly, it became a sweeping sensation with thousands of volunteers involved across four emirates.
This year, a team of 13 Dubai expats have been licensed to organise the initiative while operating under the Red Crescent umbrella. Australian-Afghan Sumayyah Sayed, creator of the ‘Sharing Fridges group’ on Facebook said “Last year, we grew organically and we weren’t expecting such a great response from the public as we had finished Ramadan with over 170 across four emirates. Today, just a few days before Ramadan starts, we have almost 60 fridges registered and we are expecting more to join as we enter Ramadan”.
It’s important that the fridges are filled as much as possible and people are encouraged to drop their food and drink donations at any of the fridge locations displayed on the Google Map posted on the initiative’s Facebook page.
Residents interested in joining the initiative and setting up a fridge, must seek approval from their building management before reaching out to the ‘Ramadan Sharing Fridges’ group to register.
Five Dubai schools have also joined the Ramadan Fridges initiative this year and have committed installing their own fridges, with many more lined up to join in. The schools, which have set up a fridge are the Horizon School, Dubai British School, North Anglia International School, Victory Heighs Nursery and Mirdif Private School.
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The Ramadan Sharing Fridges will stretch across 10 zones in Dubai and over a dozen communities:
- Marina, Palm & Sufouh1
- Sports City, Ranches & Surrounds2
- Emirates living - JVC and the Springs
- Umm Suqeim & Jumeirah
- Al Barsha, Al Quoz & Downtown
- Meydan, Silicon Oasis & Surrounds6
- Garhoud to Mirdif
- Old Dubai
- Al Ghusais & Al Mizhar
- Jebel Ali and DIP