In line with the directives of His Highness Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE, to declare 2017 as the Year of Giving, Dubai Municipality & Mohammed Bin Rashid Global Centre for Endowment Consultancy (MBRGCEC) have announced the revival of the over 125-years’ age-old custom of the endowment of palm trees by establishing the Endowment Park, a first collective endowment park & dates factory in the world. The project is located next to Mushrif Park, Dubai and will be spread over an area of 15 hectares.

The new park combines the business model of crowdsourcing (a concept that has been successfully used in many economic projects) with the concept of innovative endowment adopted by the Mohammed bin Rashid Global Centre for Endowment Consultancy.

Hussain Lootah, Director General of Dubai Municipality said: “We all know that Dubai is pioneering in innovation in different fields, today we announce one of its innovation in the charity field. This is in line with the year of giving declared by H.H. Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAE President, the the strategy of the year of giving launched by H.H. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice-President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai. Alihsan park will be the first collective-endowment park in the world under the name of UAE community”.

Lootah added: “we will work soon on the infrastructure of the endowment park and we will then open the door for the community to donate palms from their houses and farms. The production of this park will be packed in an endowment date factory located in the same park. The dates will be distributed to needy segments”.

Dr. Hamad Al Hammady, Secretary General of MBRGCEC said: “The Endowment park in Dubai is one of the initiative that supports the directives of H.H. Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, UAE President in regard to the year of giving, it also adopts the concept of innovative endowment launched last year by H.H. Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice-President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai. The centre works to establish innovative initiatives to open the doors for the whole community to be part of endowment.”

The first collective-endowment Park in the world will be established with the members of the UAE community donating the palm trees, which in turn will become an agricultural endowment.
The project will also include a charity date-packing factory, which will allocate its entire production towards the needy members within the UAE community. The project has an expected annual production capacity of around 150 tonnes of dates.

The Endowment Park aims at opening the doors of sustainable charity to all its community members. The entire concept is derived from the 125-year old custom originating from the Hatta region, which had the social custom of endowing palms by traditionally donating the proceeds into charity and favouring the needy members of the community.

During the second half of 2017, Dubai Municipality will announce the launch of the invitation to donate towards the palms endowment for the park as soon as the infrastructure is completed on the project. The municipality will also issue the specific requirements for each endowment palm tree in order to ensure the quality of production within the Endowment Park.