Charity dinner to raise funds for needy Al Quds University students

Sheikh Nahyan, together with ambassadors and Al Quds University President, Sari Nusseibeh and officials from the University are expected to attend the event.

In addition number of Palestinian and Arab businessmen who supported this event will also attend. Renowned in the Arab world, Lebanese singer Ahmad Kaabour and the Syrian poet Omar Al Fara will be entertaining the audience.

On this occasion, the Committee held a press conference on Thursday attended by Ahmad Kaabour and the committee members. Kaabour, who is singer and music composer, will sing the best of his songs, which include several songs about Palestine with the most known song Ounadikom ("I Call on You") that he composed at the age of nineteen.

The evening will also feature the respected popular Syrian poet Omar Al Fara who will be reciting his most famous poems. Al Fara, who starts writing poetry at the age of thirteen, has now five divans, four of them are written in colloquial Arabic, which is best to read in the Bedouin accent. One of his most famous poems is "Hamda", where he speaks about a rebellious Bedouin female who refuses to marry her cousin according to her tribe customs .

Al-Quds University, the only Arab University in the holy city of Jerusalem, provides education and community services to students from neighboring towns, villages and refugee camps.

The university hosts more than ten thousand students many of them are unable to pay fees because of the increasing unemployment rate and the deteriorating economic conditions.

The value of the assistance required in one academic year to enable needy students to pursue academic education stood to about three million Jordanian dinars per year.

In order to support this historic and significant academic institution in Jerusalem and to support a worthy cause, Al Quds University Friends' Committee in Abu Dhabi was set up in March 2004 by number of volunteers from the UAE and Palestinian and Arab communities in Abu Dhabi. Their main aim is to seek funds to support needy Palestinian students at Al Quds University, particularly those who excel academically.

Students are selected based on information provided by the University on the students' background, family income and living standards in addition to their academic performance and achievements. After the Committee selects the students, the financial aid is sent directly to the University, which then provides information on the students and their performances.

Since the Committee was established in 2004, it has succeeded in raising funds for 1200 students.