Dubai Culture & Arts Authority (Dubai Culture), the emirate's dedicated entity for culture, arts, heritage and literature, successfully concluded its 2018 annual summer camp, organised by Dubai Public Library under the theme ‘Our Summer is Art & Culture’.

The summer camp featured a wide variety of educational activities, placing a special focus on creativity and innovation to ensure thrilling times for participating children.

Saeed Al Nabouda, acting director general at Dubai Culture, and Dr Salah Al Qassim, advisor of Dubai Culture, visited the camp, which saw a turnout of around 700 students. The programme welcomed children aged 6-12, and offered its activities in both Arabic and English; to ensure maximum benefit for all students.

Focusing on creativity, innovation, reading and science, the camp incorporated specialised workshops on robotics and various reading workshops, as well as a 3D-printing course and courses on scientific research and personal skills development, such as rhetoric, critical thinking and teamwork. The workshops were held across Dubai Public Library branches in Al Twar, Al Rashidiya, Al Mankhool, Umm Suqeim, Hatta and Hor Al Anz.

Al Nabouda, said: “This year's programme has achieved many goals, including encouraging children to invest their school holiday time in practising productive activities, equipping them with new life skills that help in acquiring knowledge. Aiming to realise the Library’s vision and its objectives as an ideal environment for enriching culture, science and knowledge, the camp offered children an opportunity to learn about the real role of Dubai Public Library, and ways to best employ its services throughout the year.”

Dr Salah Al Qassim, added: “We are very pleased with the success of this year's programme, which, thanks to the preparations carried out by our staff, exceeded our expectations in terms number of visitors. The programme’s success was evident in the huge turnout, the positive feedback of students and parents.”

The summer camp is part of Dubai Public Library's ‘Dubai Reads’ programme, which through its 7 initiatives, aims to promote reading in the community and draw children to the world of books at an early age. This comes as a product of Dubai Culture's belief in the vital role that public libraries play in transforming the Emirati community into a hive of readers by providing best practice paradigms to spread the culture of reading across the community. The authority strives to make a strong long-lasting impact on children and parents, presenting books as the most effective knowledge-acquisition tool in their present and future lives.

“This was the first time I participated in the Dubai Public Library Summer Camp, and having learnt a great deal from it and met many new friends, it will certainly be on my calendar in upcoming years,” said student Abdul Rahim Abdullah Al Shehhi.

“Every year, some of my classmates and I participate in the summer camp as it offers unique activities within an enjoyable learning environment that cannot be found anywhere else,” said student Fatima Ali Al Suwaidi. “Across the camp’s various events, the trainers and instructors demonstrate great attentiveness and keenness to provide all that is useful in our studies and our lives in general.”

The Dubai Public Library network includes eight libraries for adults and another seven for children, some of which featuring multipurpose halls, classrooms and exhibition spaces. All branches of the Dubai Public Library are connected via computer systems, establishing close links with other modern libraries, and providing access to vast sources of information on a diversity of topics in both Arabic and English. - TradeArabia News Service