Dubai volunteers prepare over 10 million meals for Gaza

Hundreds of volunteers in Dubai helped prepare more than 10 million meals for people in Gaza at a community packing event on 26 September. At the Dubai World Trade Centre, UAE citizens and residents, including schoolchildren and government employees, filled boxes with staples such as rice, pulses, vegetable oil, chickpeas and sugar.

For 77-year-old Rashed Mohammed Binhashem, the work carried a personal meaning. He arrived at 9am to honour his friend, the late Sheikh Ahmed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, whom he had visited weekly until the month before his death. The initiative was renamed the Ahmed bin Rashid Humanitarian Bridge in the sheikh’s memory.

Nearby, cousins Shamsa, nine, and Hamda, five, sometimes stood on tiptoe to place items inside the boxes. Shamsa explained that they had swapped their usual Saturday lie-in and playtime for an early start because they wanted to help. A team of more than 20 Dubai Customs volunteers took shifts packing, while cheers marked milestones around the hall.

Organised by Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives in cooperation with the UAE’s Operation Chivalrous Knight 3, the event brought generations together around a practical task: preparing food assistance for Palestinians in Gaza.