Dubai:The Community Development Authority (CDA) in Dubai revealed an increase in the number of volunteer hours recorded by the Authority's Dubai Volunteer Program by 49.8% between 2019 and 2020. The increase was from 187,873 hours in the first ten months of the year 2019 to 281,363 hours during the same period of 2020.
The announcement came during a virtual forum organized by CDA in the occasion of the International Volunteer Day and in the presence of a large number of volunteers and volunteer bodies who had noticeable impact in achieving the great progress in volunteer work during the current year.
During his speech at the opening of the forum, Huraiz Al Mur Bin Huraiz, the CEO of the Social Care & Development Sector in CDA said that the number of volunteers registered in the Dubai Volunteer Program reached about 30,000 volunteers of various nationalities residing in Dubai by the end of October of this year. Indicating that the increase in the number of those registered in the program confirms the high awareness about the importance of volunteer work among members of the community and its institutions, as well as the increasing tendency for them to participate in community service and development.
The unusual circumstances imposed by the spread of the Corona pandemic involved increasing numbers of volunteers, whether as individuals or as volunteer teams, who played an important and prominent role in dealing with a number of societal needs imposed by this crisis, such as protecting and caring for the elderly citizens and residents, and most vulnerable groups.
“The number of volunteer opportunities increased from 915 last year to 995 during this year despite the absence of events, which confirms that most of the volunteer opportunities came in the field of community service and in support for community members”. 
“In such situations, the volunteer work and support is a success factor for the community plans and programs launched by the government and its institutions. Solidarity, community cohesion, and work for the sake of the neighbor, friend and most vulnerable person providing time, effort, skills and expertise provided, these are the real guarantees for the sustainability of community development”. Bin Huraiz concluded
CDA revealed that the financial savings achieved by volunteer work according to the opportunities registered with the authority during the current year, reached AED 21,946,345, compared to AED 14,654,055 for the same period last year.
The number of voluntary bodies registered in the Dubai Volunteer Program has reached 672, including governmental and private companies from the health, service and social sectors.
CDA honored the most active volunteers this year, as well as the volunteer teams most participating in the volunteering activities this year. In addition to the bodies supporting volunteer work, which contributed to offering volunteer opportunities through the Dubai Volunteer Program platform, and the volunteer teams that contributed to providing the largest number of volunteers and documenting the largest number of volunteer hours. Senior citizen volunteers participating in various volunteer opportunities were also honored, and the most prominent individual volunteers in terms of the number of their volunteering hours.