Al Hilal Bank launches ‘Heart to Heart' Ramadan 2015 campaign in support of children with congenital heart diseases

UAE, June 17, 2015 - Upholding the genuine spirit of giving, Al Hilal Bank has today (Wednesday, June 17, 2015) held a press conference at its headquarters in Abu Dhabi to officially launch its special ‘Heart to Heart’ campaign under the umbrella of the ‘Joud Bil Khair’ (‘do good’) programme organized last year for this holy month of Ramadan. The initiative encourages medical, moral and financial support for children with congenital heart diseases, especially those belonging to low-income families. Dr. Adel Al Shamry, CEO of Zayed Giving Initiative, and Mohamed Jamil Berro, Group CEO of Al Hilal Bank, were the main speakers at today’s inauguration conference.

The ‘Heart to Heart’ campaign consolidates the art of giving, employee volunteerism, and sharing among the various segments of the society. It aims to attract additional partners to enable volunteer medical staff to treat more child patients and highlight the role of Al Hilal Bank in responsibly serving the community in line with the directives of the wise leadership of the UAE.

Zayed Giving Initiative is collaborating with Al Hilal Bank in assembling a team of doctors who will lend their expertise under the campaign. Other partners who will help gather technical and logistical support in the form of medical staff, diagnostic devices, and mobile medical camp are Dar Al Ber Society, Saudi German Hospital, and Emirates Heart Center Abu Dhabi.

The primary goal of ‘Heart to Heart’ is to rally financial support for the surgeries of 10 children. As part of the campaign, mobile medical camp will also visit the city center of Abu Dhabi, Al Gharbia, Al Ain, and Dubai successively a day per each week to check children for symptoms of congenital heart diseases and conduct cardiac blood tests on the elderly for free. The ‘Forsan Al Khair’ team, a group of volunteer employees from Al Hilal Bank, will accompany the medical missions to assist the doctors by providing moral support and handling logistics.

Aside from providing financial and medical aid, the ‘Heart to Heart’ campaign aims to spread awareness about congenital heart diseases and the importance of early detection. Individuals can also contribute to the cause by logging on to Al Hilal Bank’s social media channels; the bank will match each tweet of #Joud_Bil_Khair with AED 5 which it will add to the running fund for the planned surgeries. Other live activities will be held throughout the campaign period.

Dr. Al Shamry said: “Since 2003, Zayed Giving Initiative has been promoting the spirit of humanitarianism inspired by H.H. the late Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the beloved founder of the UAE. Our particular focus on community health development earned for us the Sheikh Hamdan Bin Rashid Award for Volunteers in Humanitarian Medical Services. We hope that more institutions will follow Al Hilal Bank’s example and step up their volunteerism and philanthropy especially towards health-related projects. We look forward to seeing the smiles on 10 children in particular whose lives will forever be changed this year through the generosity of kind strangers.”

“Following the essence of our ‘Joud Bil Khair’ campaign, once again we are emphasizing the importance of ‘doing good’ this coming Ramadan. Through our ‘Heart to Heart’ initiative we aim to give hope and relief to children suffering from heart diseases and raise more awareness on how to detect and prevent these kinds of serious medical conditions. We would like to thank our employees for supporting our latest Ramadan campaign and extend our sincere gratitude to Zayed Giving Initiative and other generous organizations and individuals for making a difference in the lives of needy children,” added Berro.

Al Hilal Bank organizes special campaigns during Ramadan to give back to the community and encourage volunteerism and philanthropy in keeping with the charitable spirit of the holy month. Last year it donated AED 1 million to over 10 charities across the UAE as part of its ‘Joud Bil Khair’ campaign.