DIFC facilitates corporate social responsibility partnership with Visionaire.

Canadian-based SMART Technologies and Visionaire FZE, a UAE based convergence technology provider today signed a memorandum of understanding with educational charity, Indemaj to donate 35 SMART Boards to rural schools in the UAE.

The agreement, facilitated by the Dubai International Financial Centre's (DIFC) High Flyers team through corporate social responsibility program, was signed at the Ministry of Education, Dubai, by Khawla Al Mualla, Chairperson of Indemaj and Aneeta Gupta, Chief Executive Officer of Visionaire.

Nabil Ramadhan, Chief Human Capital Officer, DIFC said: "As part of DIFC's focus on the area of corporate social responsibility, one of the DIFC High Flyer Program's recent projects involved helping to raise funds for local schools.

"The six-week project was a partnership with Indemaj and resulted in the donation of the SMART Boards. We thank the teams involved for their commitment and outstanding contribution to the project," said Mr Ramadhan.

Indemaj, an educational charity under the Honorary Royal Patronage of HRH Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein, establishes Resource and Development Centers and provides teacher training, mentoring, research and monitoring in government schools in rural areas of the UAE. Its vision is to enable all children to reach their full educational potential.

Khawla Al Mualla, Chairperson of Indemaj said: "On behalf of Indemaj, I would like to thank SMART Technologies and Visionaire for this generous contribution to our charitable program. We would also like to thank the DIFC for facilitating the donation.

"The donation of 35 SMART Boards will go a long way in alleviating some of the problems faced by the schools in rural areas, particularly for the children with special needs.

"We hope this generosity inspires other corporate entities to take similar initiatives for this worthy cause," said Mrs Al Mualla.

There are currently approximately 290,873 students registered in UAE government schools and according to United Nations International Statistics, an estimated 20% of children have some form of learning disability, ranging from mild to severe.

Hanne Al Gurg, CEO of Indemaj said: "We recognize there are a significant number of children who are currently being overlooked by the system. Many teachers in government schools in rural areas lack the knowledge and professional skills necessary for understanding and working with children with special needs.

"There are also very few specialized resources available to assist teachers in making learning interesting for students. We believe every child has the right to acquire educational qualifications and Indemaj aims to provide children with a supportive education system," said Mrs Al Gurg.

Visionaire CEO, Aneeta Gupta said: "As a measure of our support to Indemaj in its endeavour, we have donated 35 SMART Boards to rural schools in the UAE. Visionaire will send experienced technicians to install the boards, and to maximize the benefits of this unique technology we will provide support and training to the teachers for using the SMART boards in these schools.

"This is not a one-time donation; we're committed to continuing our support of Indemaj and rural students in the UAE," said Ms Gupta.

A SMART Board is an interactive whiteboard that connects directly to a teacher's computer and works to enhance lesson delivery and engage and motivate students by addressing the full range of learning styles.

About IndemajIndemaj is a newly established charity organization under the Honorary Royal Patronage of HRH Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein, wife of HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of UAE, Ruler of Dubai. Indemaj is governed by a Board of Trustees approved by HRH Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein.Each project implemented by Indemaj will impact approximately 300 students and 25 teachers in each government school. Teachers will be given theoretical and practical training skills in working with children of different learning abilities and Indemaj will monitor the project through and ongoing mentoring and support program.

About Visionaire FZEVisionaire is a global leader in the collaborative technology deployment - a mix of businesses that serve the rapidly converging professional communication, information and rich media marketplace with a comprehensive offering of advanced, high quality solutions and services. The company brings over 100 years of the best industry experience offering integrated converged technologies for voice, data, video and audio with solutions which include turnkey services for ICT program management. For more information, please visit www.govisionaire.com.

About SMART Technologies SMART Technologies is both the industry pioneer and market-segment leader in easy-to-use interactive whiteboards and other group collaboration tools. Using SMART products, groups can access and share the information they need to meet, teach, train and present regardless of distance. SMART products include the family of award-winning SMART Board interactive whiteboards, interactive pen displays, interactive digital signage, wireless slates and software. For more information, please visit http://smarttech.com

About DIFCThe Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) is an onshore hub for global finance. It bridges the time gap between the financial centres of Hong Kong and London and services a region with the largest untapped emerging market for financial services.

In just three years, over 550 firms have registered at the DIFC. They operate in an open environment complemented with world-class regulations and standards. The DIFC offers its member institutions incentives such as 100 per cent foreign ownership, zero tax on income and profits and no restrictions on foreign exchange. In addition their business benefits from modern infrastructure, operational support and business continuity facilities of uncompromisingly high standards.

The DIFC High Flyer Program is a one-year program for executives and high potentials within the DIFC and will work by identifying, retaining these individuals and developing their management skills.

For more information, please visit www.difc.ae

[c] 2008 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)