World's tallest building to track progress of Dubai Cares' Million Book Challenge

The announcement follows the launch of the charitable establishment's campaign, on Sunday at the Al Maktoum School for Boys in the presence of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai.

Million Book Challenge
The Million Book Challenge invites emirate-based school students from the ages of 3-14 years to collectively read 1,000,000 books in two weeks.

Beginning 5 November, Dubai Cares will beam the total number of books read each evening to mark the campaign's progress towards its goal.

For each book read, Dubai Cares will purchase a book and donate it to children in need in their local language.

Room to Read
The distribution of books will be managed by global organization Room to Read (www.roomtoread.org) and, for books in the Arab world, Arab NGO's.

The books will be donated to children around the world who do not currently have access to books.

Already, the Mohammed Bin Rashid Foundation has committed 100,000 books to be distributed in the Arab world.

Her Excellency Reem Al Hashimy, Chairperson of Dubai Cares Board of Directors:

"To help the students and residents of Dubai understand the magnitude of this challenge, we have tried to quantify this goal with a visual representation. Stacked atop one another, one million books is, conservatively, four kilometres high, which is five times the height of Burj Dubai, the tallest building in the world. So, like a thermometer, we will shine a beam of light to steadily register the progress of students' reading records."

Her Excellency added:

"The Million Book Challenge believes in the power of words and knowledge and represents an opportunity for the children in our community to make a difference. We are so proud of our students because, since the launch, they have read 121,639 books."

A coordinator assigned by each school is tasked with the responsibility of tracking and verifying the number of books read.

Each student has a Million Book Tracker on which parents sign off that documents book title, author, number of pages and date of completion.

Dubai Cares' Volunteer Campaign offers diverse volunteer opportunities to attract participation from all levels of the community, focusing on the benefits of volunteering in line with the charitable establishment's continuous commitment to philanthropic values.

Dubai Cares is now considered the largest charitable establishment, solely devoted to improving primary education around the world.

Through partnerships with international aid agencies, Dubai Cares is actively addressing the educational needs of more than 4 million children around the world.

Dubai Cares has prioritized its Phase One grants to 12 countries that experience the highest gap in primary education.

Earlier this year, Dubai Cares listed the beneficiary countries - Bangladesh, Bosnia, Chad, Comoros Islands, Djibouti, Maldives, Mauritania, Niger, Pakistan, Occupied Palestinian territories, Sudan, and Yemen, and Palestinian refugees (in Lebanon and Jordan).