DEWA Opens Libraries to Students to Improve Reading Skills

To support the Arab Reading Challenge, the largest Arab project to encourage reading among students in the Arab world, launched by HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE, and Ruler of Dubai, Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) has opened its private libraries to all students to encourage the young generation to cultivate the habit of reading. Under the new initiative, more than one million students will commit to reading 50 million books between September 2015 and March 2016. “To support the Arab Reading Challenge, and implement the objectives of the UAE National Agenda 2021 to develop a first-rate education system, DEWA has developed a strategy to become a sustainable learning organisation working to promote reading culture reading for all society,” said HE Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, MD & CEO, DEWA. We look forward to making UAE students among the best in the world, backing them with knowledge and reading skills, and we would like all our schools groom leaders and teachers with highest international standards, as well as making the students’ Arabic reading skills excellent. To promote this trend, the Knowledge Management (KM) in DEWA, in cooperation with the concerned authorities, will provide all facilities to establish a cognitive environment that supports the government directives. The KM libraries of DEWA, which include a significant number of digital and print publications, will receive students, organise courses dedicated to reading basics, provide knowledge resources for reading in various scientific research fields including renewable and clean energy, improve reading skills among students through series of different events and activities, and contribute to raising up a new generation that has a passion for reading and knowledge,” added Al Tayer. “KM operations have been in operation in DEWA since 2010. DEWA has developed an integrated policy for knowledge management to determine the investment priorities and encourage cognitive creative abilities for the intellectual assets to enhance knowledge sharing within the organisation, its sub-departments, and stakeholders, by building innovative libraries. KM will open the doors to volunteers and reading enthusiasts, and will launch a donation campaign for used or new books to be re-distributed to those who like to read or the communities in need,” said Dr Yousef Al Akraf, Executive Vice President of Business Support and Human Resources at DEWA. DEWA KM Libraries have been praised by several educational and scientific institutions from within and outside the UAE since its inauguration in 2013 by HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE, Ruler of Dubai (Al Quoz branch), and by HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, UAE Minister of Finance and President of DEWA (Warsan branch). They have welcomed over 30 dignitaries looking for the best practices in Institutional Knowledge Management.