Dubai Media Incorporated brings home win at GovMedia Conference & Awards for newspaper initiative
Its Hotline initiative registers humanitarian assistance requests from citizens and publishes them in the newspaper.
State-owned media company Dubai Media Incorporated received the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Public Sector Initiative of the Year - Media category win at the esteemed GovMedia Conference & Awards 2024 for the “Hotline” initiative of its newspaper Al-Emarat Al-Youm, which is a part of its efforts in social, charitable, and humanitarian journalism.
Hotline aims to focus on vulnerable social groups by receiving and registering humanitarian assistance requests from citizens and residents in the country, and publishing them in the newspaper. The initiative directs these requests to officials and philanthropists or collaborates with accredited charitable institutions in the UAE.
It focuses on the employment of nationals in the government and public sector, which has contributed job opportunities for 280 citizens in the government and private sectors as of writing. It also deals with properly handling complaints by categorising them into general and specific complaints, and forwarding them to the relevant authorities for review.
At the same time, Hotline provides humanitarian assistance to cases such as families, widows, divorcees, and needy families by covering living expenses like rent, electricity, and water bills, alleviating distress, providing medicine and treatment for the disabled patients and assisting financially challenged students to continue their education. In the past year, humanitarian cases worth AED41m have been offered.
In over 14 years, the initiative has adopted 29 leading national community initiatives valued at AED318m since its inception. This includes the Yak Al-Aoun initiative that releases citizens from legal obligations; the Hand of Goodness, which fills overdue rents. It also includes the Bunyan Al-Khair, which aims to meet the housing needs of low-income people, needy families and humanitarian cases who do not meet the requirements.
“The initiative seeks to find solutions, present them to the public, and enhance the performance of relevant authorities for customer satisfaction,” the company said.
The GovMedia Conference & Awards is a prestigious event that spotlights outstanding government projects and initiatives in Asia that contributes to the well-being of the people in the region.
The Gov Media Awards is presented by Gov Media Magazine. To view the full list of winners, click here. If you want to join the 2025 awards programme and be recognised for your organisation's government projects and initiatives, please contact Jane Patiag at [email protected].