More than 80 ROTA volunteers and Secondary grade level students from the Bangladesh school have gathered in the past week to renovate one of the oldest secondary schools in Qatar. The project, involved scraping the walls, painting, decorating and refurbishing six kindergarten classrooms with 180 chairs and 50 tables. ROTA is also working closely with Qatar Foundation’s Facilities Management Directorate who is generously supporting the construction of a new covered playground area at the school.

This project is part of ROTA’s 8^th annual Ramadan Project, “Sharing Blessings”, which has become a recognized volunteer effort to support the local community during the Holy Month. Sponsored by Occidental Petroleum Corporation (OXY) Qatar, the renovation of this school aims to provide engaging volunteering opportunities and raise awareness on the values of volunteerism and community service.

“We are delighted to witness the successful renovation of the Bangladesh school by our wonderful team of volunteers. This Ramadan, our aim is to engage our incredible ROTA volunteers to continue to give back and share their blessings with people in need in our community. After seeing the ongoing commitment of all our volunteers towards this project, I can say that they have truly made a real impact and an incredible change on the student’s lives, National Program Director at ROTA, Mr. Mohamed Al Saleh said.

“This was definitely an extraordinary team of volunteers. They were absolutely committed to the project from start to end “said Mr. Hazem Idriss, Volunteers Outreach Specialist.” The team showed great enthusiasm and bonded very well with one another, they clearly enjoyed every aspect of the project. It is great to see how much impact this experience had on the volunteers and how their work made a difference on other people’s lives. I’m so proud to be part of all this journey and I’m looking forward to seeing the final outcome of the school this week.

OXY Qatar General Manager, Steve Kelly also spoke adding: “At this very special time of year, Oxy Qatar is honored to support the renovation of one Qatar’s oldest secondary schools. Our partnership with ROTA demonstrates our strong commitment to support our youth in Qatar by helping them to improve their lives in every way possible. A number of our volunteers took part in the project, and it was a blessing to see how fully engaged they were in the whole experience. Our sincere thanks to all the volunteers and everyone behind the scenes.

Graduate student of the Doha British School who was on site partaking in the renovations, said

“It’s a big difference to what we saw when we first came. Classrooms were drab, windows lacked curtains, and the decor was minimal. The walls had holes and chipped paint, and it didn’t look like a school for young children. It looked abandoned. We stripped the place down and completely changed it up. We’re bringing in new furniture tomorrow to replace the wooden tables that sat five-six children that were here before.”

Sumaia Rahman, a student at the MHM Bangladesh School said: It’s our summer vacation and we are renovating our school in a different way, so when the children will come they will see a new class, they will be feel extremely happy!

The school renovation project is an addition to ROTA’s wider Ramadan 2014 volunteer effort, which has over the years, engaged many hundreds of volunteers. This year, the support is expected to reach over 1,000 individual in Qatar.

The annual Ramadan Project is being exclusively sponsored by OXY Qatar for the third consecutive year and ROTA is extremely pleased and proud to continue to work with such a visionary partner in the years to come. In addition, ROTA’s Volunteer Program works closely with the Social Development Centre, and Qatar Foundation’s Facilities Management Directorate.

This year, ROTA volunteers will serve and support important community partners including: Rumailah Hospital’s Children’s Rehabilitation Centre and Residential Care Compound, Hamad Hospital’s Paediatric Leukaemia Unit, and Qatar Foundation for Elderly Care

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