As part of The Year of Zayed, the Environment Agency – Abu Dhabi (EAD) hosted on May 21 Nasamaat Al Khair, a workshop that brought together the Agency’s employees with young Emirati people of determination. The interactive hands-on workshop, which engaged more than 85 employees, was held at EAD Headquarters in Abu Dhabi, and was delivered by Enable, a unique award-winning social enterprise that empowers young Emirati people of determination and trains them to assemble then sell a range of quality home and office plant arrangements using succulents and cacti. The employees were each trained on how to arrange a beautiful desert succulent plant, which was then theirs to keep.
In this regard, Laila Yousef Al Hassan, Senior Advisor and Chair of the Year of Zayed Team at EAD, said "We are honored to have been given the opportunity by Enable to host these inspiring people of determination and to share our passion for the environment with them. Throughout The Year of Zayed, EAD has been commemorating and honouring the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan’s legacy through initiatives that are consistent with his values and one of the most important values he tried to instil in us was Respect – respect for people of all abilities. We felt that Ramadan is the best time to encourage this value amongst our staff.”
Reem Saeed Al Ghaith, General Manager Enable said: “Enable is an Emirati social enterprise initiated by Desert Group’s CSR Dept since 2015. It aims to help develop entrepreneurial skills in people of determination through a unique award winning Rehabilitation Retail Programme in order to help them create and manage their own retail units and therefore sustain their future”.
She added “Our ultimate goal is to help them integrate better into society by learning the basics of starting a business. As a social enterprise, 100% of the revenue is reinvested back into the enterprise making it a sustainable model with along with a monetary incentive (part of the rehab program) of 15% of each product that goes back to the young special talent who created it within Enable.”
Nasamaat Al Khair is just one of EAD’s initiatives for The Year of Zayed. The Agency has also marked this important year in many other ways. In January 2018, it declared the Sheikh Zayed Protected Areas Network, which is made up of 19 important terrestrial and marine sites that now benefit from the highest legal protection. In February 2018, the Agency’s employees formed Team Zayed and ventured to Antarctica, as part of the Climate Force International Antarctic Expedition, helping to raise international awareness about the late Sheikh Zayed’s environmental legacy. In May 2018, the Agency tagged and released four endangered Green turtles off Bu Tinah Island to raise awareness about the importance the late Sheikh Zayed gave to wildlife release programmes. Throughout the year, the Agency also engaged the community through a serial of clean-up campaigns.