Parents across the country have begun to shop for protective equipment for their children before the return to school classes next week.
Face masks and pocket hand sanitisers appeared alongside uniforms, books and bags on the back-to-school shopping lists for many families.
Colourful, graphic masks - both washable and disposable - are a popular purchase for younger pupils.
“I bought different masks for different days because my daughter is young and I want to try and normalise things for her,” said Dorsai Khaghani, whose 5-year-old daughter Karla goes to Gems Wellington International School.
We are supplying an estimated 250,000 kids' masks to UAE retailers and pharmacies
“I will be sending her back to school five days a week for three hours in the morning, from 7.45am to 10.45am, so she will bring one mask to wear and a spare one in case the other gets dirty.
“I’ve also bought her a mix of hand sanitisers to hang on her bag which have cartoon characters on them.”
Ms Khaghani, from Iran, said she spent Dh60 for a five pack of washable masks and about Dh100 for a pack of 50 disposable masks in assorted prints.
Stocking up on back-to-school essentials at Mall of the Emirates on Sunday was father of two Hilario Ubaldo.
His sons, Jettliam Ubaldo, 5 and Geoff Ivan, 10, attend Gems Winchester School in Dubai and will return to class full-time on August 30.
“In total, we’ve paid out about Dh1,000 extra on face masks and sanitisers so they can return to school safely,” said Mr Ubaldo, from the Philippines.
“We paid more for masks that have kid-friendly designs on them because this is going to be a weird transition for them.
“With all these safety measures in place it will take some getting used to.
“I thought why not make the experience more enjoyable by giving them masks that are more playful.”
In Dubai, pupils aged six and above are required to wear face masks at all times.
In Abu Dhabi, the same rules apply and the education authority said children must bring at least two masks to school each day.
They were also requested to carry a 70 to 80 per cent alcohol-based sanitiser, where possible.
Mother-of-two Farah Altaher said her five-year-old twin girls, Ghazal and Yara, will join KG2 at Emirates International School – Jumeirah at the end of the month.
“Although they are below six years old, we will be sending them to school in masks,“ she said.
“Yara has leukemia and has never been to school so we didn’t want her to miss out this year.
“The school has kept us up-to-date with all the precautionary measures in place so we’re confident with our decision.”
Because of Yara’s illness, Ms Altaher, from Jordan, said the family is used to wearing masks at home so the girls were well prepared for what to expect.
“We’ve kept it fun for them and bought masks with colourful designs and prints," she said.
“We spent a little extra buying additional protective items, maybe a few hundred dirhams, but we would rather be safe than sorry.”
In recent weeks, shops in the UAE stocked up on large quantities of masks for children in preparation for the back-to-school shopping rush.
Affordable disposable masks, priced at just Dh2 each, can be found in hypermarkets and pharmacies across the Emirates. More durable, washable alternatives are on sale at a number of high street shops, including Claire’s Accessories and Centrepoint, for anywhere between Dh25 to Dh70.
Even larger quantities of masks adorned with cartoons and animals, up to 50 in some cases, can be found online at Amazon and Noon, among others.
Over the past month, Fine Hygienic Holding, a manufacturer of hygiene products, has supplied hundreds of thousands of children’s face masks to stores in the UAE.
"We are supplying an estimated 250,000 kids' masks to UAE retailers and pharmacies," James Lafferty, chief executive at Fine, told The National.
“Our kids’ masks are catered to pre-teens, and come in fun and colourful designs, one for boys and one for girls.
“As back-to-school season has started, we have indeed seen a strong pick-up in our online sales, by an estimated 30 per cent.”
We make them with thick materials which are used by doctors, not the flimsy, thin ones which you often see on the market
Natasha Bajaj, founder of Nats and Jun, a maternity retailer in Dubai, started making child-friendly face shields when the pandemic hit.
She said sales of the Dh79 protective wear soared as younger children prepare to head back to class.
“I actually started making these because my son is very apprehensive about wearing a face mask," she said.
“I make them with thick materials which are used by doctors, not the flimsy, thin ones which you often see on the market.
“The demand has been crazy recently. I have sold more than 1,000 shields recently.”
Earlier this month, Dr Omar Al Hammadi, an official representative for the UAE Government, said children over the age of two should wear masks while out in public.
Although they are less likely to develop serious symptoms of Covid-19, he said they can carry the virus and pass it on, so precautions must be taken to protect them.
The specs
Engine: 2-litre 4-cylinder and 3.6-litre 6-cylinder
Power: 220 and 280 horsepower
Torque: 350 and 360Nm
Transmission: eight-speed automatic
Price: from Dh136,521 VAT and Dh166,464 VAT
On sale: now
About Housecall
Date started: July 2020
Founders: Omar and Humaid Alzaabi
Based: Abu Dhabi
Sector: HealthTech
# of staff: 10
Funding to date: Self-funded
Company Profile:
Name: The Protein Bakeshop
Date of start: 2013
Founders: Rashi Chowdhary and Saad Umerani
Based: Dubai
Size, number of employees: 12
Funding/investors: $400,000 (2018)
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Wicked: For Good
Director: Jon M Chu
Starring: Ariana Grande, Cynthia Erivo, Jonathan Bailey, Jeff Goldblum, Michelle Yeoh, Ethan Slater
Rating: 4/5
The specs: 2019 Haval H6
Price, base: Dh69,900
Engine: 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder
Transmission: Seven-speed automatic
Power: 197hp @ 5,500rpm
Torque: 315Nm @ 2,000rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 7.0L / 100km
Jetour T1 specs
Engine: 2-litre turbocharged
Power: 254hp
Torque: 390Nm
Price: From Dh126,000
Available: Now
The five pillars of Islam
1. Fasting
2. Prayer
3. Hajj
4. Shahada
5. Zakat
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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MATCH INFO
Champions League quarter-final, first leg
Ajax v Juventus, Wednesday, 11pm (UAE)
Match on BeIN Sports
Getting%20there%20and%20where%20to%20stay
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BMW M5 specs
Engine: 4.4-litre twin-turbo V-8 petrol enging with additional electric motor
Power: 727hp
Torque: 1,000Nm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 10.6L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh650,000
Specs%20
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White hydrogen: Naturally occurring hydrogen
Chromite: Hard, metallic mineral containing iron oxide and chromium oxide
Ultramafic rocks: Dark-coloured rocks rich in magnesium or iron with very low silica content
Ophiolite: A section of the earth’s crust, which is oceanic in nature that has since been uplifted and exposed on land
Olivine: A commonly occurring magnesium iron silicate mineral that derives its name for its olive-green yellow-green colour
Should late investors consider cryptocurrencies?
Wealth managers recommend late investors to have a balanced portfolio that typically includes traditional assets such as cash, government and corporate bonds, equities, commodities and commercial property.
They do not usually recommend investing in Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies due to the risk and volatility associated with them.
“It has produced eye-watering returns for some, whereas others have lost substantially as this has all depended purely on timing and when the buy-in was. If someone still has about 20 to 25 years until retirement, there isn’t any need to take such risks,” Rupert Connor of Abacus Financial Consultant says.
He adds that if a person is interested in owning a business or growing a property portfolio to increase their retirement income, this can be encouraged provided they keep in mind the overall risk profile of these assets.
Women’s World T20, Asia Qualifier
UAE results
Beat China by 16 runs
Lost to Thailand by 10 wickets
Beat Nepal by five runs
Beat Hong Kong by eight wickets
Beat Malaysia by 34 runs
Standings (P, W, l, NR, points)
1. Thailand 5 4 0 1 9
2. UAE 5 4 1 0 8
3. Nepal 5 2 1 2 6
4. Hong Kong 5 2 2 1 5
5. Malaysia 5 1 4 0 2
6. China 5 0 5 0 0
Final
Thailand v UAE, Monday, 7am
Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
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THE SPECS
Aston Martin Rapide AMR
Engine: 6.0-litre V12
Transmission: Touchtronic III eight-speed automatic
Power: 595bhp
Torque: 630Nm
Price: Dh999,563
UAE%20SQUAD
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MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League final:
Who: Real Madrid v Liverpool
Where: NSC Olimpiyskiy Stadium, Kiev, Ukraine
When: Saturday, May 26, 10.45pm (UAE)
TV: Match on BeIN Sports
