The Emirates Group actively supports numerous causes both in the UAE and around the world, but the one closest to our heart is the Emirates Airline Foundation.
It is a non-profit charity organisation which aims to improve the quality of life for children, regardless of geographical, political, or religious boundaries, and to help them maintain or improve their human dignity.
The foundation’s aim is to help disadvantaged children realise their full potential by providing them with the basics which most of us take for granted such as food, medicine, housing and education.
Focusing particularly on children caught up in extreme poverty, the foundation, made up of volunteer employees and friends of the Emirates Group, strives to reduce illness and childhood mortality rates.
Under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Chairman & Chief Executive, Emirates Airline & Group, the foundation provides humanitarian, philanthropic aid and services for children, with the minimum amount of administrative expense.
A board of directors, made up of senior Emirates Group management, decides on what projects to target with funds, which our passengers help build through their kind donations, as well as through our scheme to collect any loose foreign currency.
The projects, either existing charities or new initiatives, are located primarily at Emirates’ destinations where local Emirates staff volunteers can participate and oversee their management, along with any assistance local communities may provide.
We are established by the permission of the Dubai Government and the accounts are audited by internal and external auditors. Our goal is to use 95 per cent of donated funds exclusively for the children, with five per cent allocated to administration costs.
The use of funds is regularly audited by the Emirates Group Finance department and the Internal Audit department, while the Foundation’s accounts will be audited also by an external firm.
The foundation’s list of projects includes:
- The Emirates Friendship Hospital Boat, Bangladesh
- Emirates-CHES Home, Chennai, India
- Emirates-AIM for Seva Student Home for Girls, Tamil Nadu, India
- The Kidane Mehret Orphanage, Addis Ababa
- The Dhaka Project, Bangladesh
- The Lady Ridgeway Hospital for Children, Colombo, Sri Lanka
- Beyond the Orphanage, Addis Ababa
- St John's Residential Bridge Course Camp, Andhra Pradesh, India
- The Purkal Youth Development Society, India
- St Leonard's Orphanage, Gampola, Sri Lanka
- Society for Health Education (SHE), Maldives
- Unite for Sight