Dubai, United Arab Emirates, March 10, 2022: The UAE witnessed the launch of the “One Billion Meals” initiative, which will be the largest in the region to provide food support for up to one billion meals for the poor and hungry in 50 countries, starting from the first of the holy month of Ramadan.

The “One Billion Meals” initiative organized by the “Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives” is a continuation of the qualitative results achieved by the last Ramadan campaign, which distributed 220 million meals, where the number will be completed to reach one billion meals, and contribute to the fight against hunger and malnutrition in the world. Especially among vulnerable groups of women, children, refugees, displaced persons, and victims of disasters and crises.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, who announced the launch of the “Billion Meals” campaign via Twitter, said that providing a food safety net for the poor and hungry is a moral responsibility and a humanitarian commitment from the UAE to the world, stressing that the world is going through challenges in The field of providing food security for humans… Our mission is to support our brothers in humanity to save them from hunger.

Sustainable goals

The “Billion Meals” initiative, organized by Al Maktoum Global Initiatives, aims to support the most needy groups in the world by providing food support of all kinds to the poor and needy, based on the message of giving in the holy month of Ramadan and the fact that feeding food is one of the best alms.

The initiative, the largest of its kind in the region, seeks to provide one billion meals and complete what the “100 Million Meals” campaign has achieved to reach the “One Billion Meals.”

The initiative is supported by a wide range of partners from various charitable, humanitarian and social sectors, and the “Billion Meals” initiative supports the achievement of the sustainable development goals set by the United Nations for the year 2030, including the goal of eliminating hunger in the world.

Accomplished campaign to start another

This comes after the “100 Million Meals Campaign”, to feed food in the Arab world, Africa, Asia, Europe and South America, which was launched on the eve of the start of the blessed month of Ramadan last year and organized by Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives, completed its goals in cooperation with the World Food Program. The Regional Food Banks Network, the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Humanitarian and Charity Establishment, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the Emirates Food Bank, the Dar Al Ber Society, and the Dubai Charitable Society. And charitable, humanitarian and social work institutions in the countries that were covered.

Start from ten

This series began in the month of Ramadan 2020 with the “10 Million Meals” campaign, which was a direct response to the repercussions of the Covid-19 pandemic challenge on vulnerable groups and the lowest income, and at that time represented a lifeline for many and a message of comprehensive societal solidarity in the UAE with individuals and families who lost their resources Their income due to the conditions and circumstances imposed by the global epidemic.

Bid values

The “One Billion Meal” campaign, the largest of its kind in the region, stimulates the values ​​of giving, giving and extending a helping hand, and charitable and humanitarian work to individuals and institutions in the UAE and the world, by focusing on the concept of sustainable community financing to provide food support to the neediest groups, and opening the door for participation through multiple donation channels. To devote a culture of hope and human solidarity in the region and the world for a better future.

Hard reality

The announcement of the “Billion Meals” initiative comes as the challenge of hunger, malnutrition and related diseases causes a child to lose his life every 10 seconds, and 25,000 people die every day, including 10,000 children, while 800 million people around the world go to bed hungry every day, and 52 million people suffer in the region. The Middle East and North Africa suffer from hunger or malnutrition, mostly women and children.