Daijiworld Media Network - Dubai (CDS)
Dubai, Jun 25: A major philanthropic initiative was launched when Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey visited the UAE for the first time. The initiative is called #YouthForGood and was launched along with the UAE’s Youth Hub and Shamma Al Mazrui, minister of State Affairs.
“The UAE represents positive change and hope in our Arab region and we are keen to encourage our young people to harness the power of online platforms such as Twitter to create a positive impact on their communities. #YouthForGood is a significant initiative in this direction,” said His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, vice president and prime minister of UAE and ruler of Dubai.
“I am delighted to launch the #YouthForGood initiative in partnership with Youth Hub. At Twitter, our philanthropic mission is to harness the positive power of our platform to make the world a better place and we hope that such an initiative will empower youth by building their media literacy and digital citizenship skills to drive positive change," said Dorsey on speaking about the launch.
Shamma Al Mazrui also commented on the initiative. She said, “The #YouthForGood initiative reflects Twitter's potential to impact communities by supporting real-time communication across borders and barriers. This initiative gives our youth a chance to organise around a common purpose and unite to create a force for good using the power of Twitter."
A completely new initiative, #YouthForGood has never had anything like this in the world before. It aims at supporting humanitarian and social causes as well as to sustain a volunteering culture among the youth in the region and the world, by promoting the use of Twitter to achieve these causes. It serves as part of the global #TwitterForGood campaign, which aims at harnessing the power of Twitter to bring communities together.
#YouthForGood is a competition that is open over the next three months for 3 – 5 participants. The competition calls the UAE based youth to create a more significant impact in the local communities either through civic engagement, volunteering or charitable partnerships. The initiative further encourages youth to utilise Twitter by launching a creative and engaging account that can stimulate the philanthropic efforts within the local communities.
The very well acclaimed Twitter MENA Award and A Twitter for Good Ads Grant will be awarded to the winning team. The initiative was such a big deal that Dubai royals also opened their twitter accounts to mark the occasion. Sheikh Maktoum who launched his Twitter account posted his first tweet which read, “We were honoured today to have hosted Twitter's CEO and cofounder @jack on his first visit to the Middle East and the UAE. I am also pleased to have launched my new Twitter account in his presence."
He followed up on this tweet with another one saying, “Dubai and Twitter share many aspects in common. Both stand as open global hubs for people that build bridges of understanding and dialogue among nations and present platforms to nurture youth's energies and creativity."
To know all about how to involve yourselves in this initiative, follow @TWitterMENA or log in to: www.ForGood.youth.gov.ae.