A group of volunteers from the UAE are celebrating the success of their Eid volunteer mission in Zanzibar.
The Fathers And Kids Camping group normally spends weekends exploring the UAE's deserts, but over the Eid break they travelled to the small fishing village of Kizimkazi to expand the 'Seeds of Light' school.
More than 60 adults and children teamed up with 50 people in Zanzibar to build five classrooms, bathrooms and a playground, and install a solar power system.
Our kids get to switch off from technology, enjoy some good exercise, all while having a positive impact on the communities they're visiting
The project was funded by people and businesses in the UAE. They donated more than Dh500,000 ($136,000) to the Tanzanian charity CR Hope Foundation, which runs the school.
"We nearly achieved everything we wanted," said organiser Vahid Fotuhi, 45, who is also the founder of the Middle East Solar Industry Association.
"We are all bruised and exhausted, but so proud of what we achieved. The five classrooms are 80 per cent complete, and the castle playground is finished, and larger than most homes in the area.
"We also completed the solar PV system, making Seeds of Light the first school in Zanzibar to have 24-hour power access."
Over five days, the group laid 5,000 bricks, each weighing 20kg, with adults and children working alongside the local Maasai tribesmen.
Twenty-eight children, aged three to 16, were involved in the project, Mr Fotuhi said.
"Working side by side, we got to learn a lot about the Maasai way of life and their customs.
"The kids were especially excited about their weapons. They carried a seme, a short sword with a double-edged blade used for clearing brush, cutting meat and peeling fruit.
"They also sported a rungu, which is a wooden club used for hunting and defending against lions."
A general contractor will install the doors, windows and ceiling over the next eight weeks to complete the build.
The largest climbing frame in Zanzibar
The crowning glory was the climbing frame, which was designed by Nina and Kai Schakat, the co-founders of The Rock Shack Dubai, who took part in the project with their two children.
"Every child deserves a playground and unfortunately, the Seeds of Light school lacked this vital ingredient," said Mr Fotuhi, who grew up in Canada and has lived in the UAE since 2007.
"They asked us if we could help and we jumped at the opportunity.
"In true Dubai fashion, we decided to build the biggest playground in all of Zanzibar."
The two-storey castle includes a slide, see-saw, swing, suspension bridge, climbing wall, monkey bars, ramp with pull-up rope and climbing net, and will be used every weekday by the school's 120 pupils.
The newly installed solar power system, complete with battery storage, will enable the school to operate a computer lab and offer night-time literacy classes to parents and children.
Pupils and teachers will also not have to worry about power outages, which happen regularly in Africa.
The next adventure
The Zanzibar trip was the Father And Kids Camping group's fifth philanthropic project in as many years.
Their first international trip took them to Zambia, when 18 families worked with charity Mothers Without Borders to add four classrooms and a solar-powered computer lab to Carol Zulu Primary School.
They have also helped provide clean drinking water to a community in eastern Kenya and volunteered with Classic Catering and the UAE Food Bank to deliver 30,000 warm meals to blue-collar workers in Dubai who lost their jobs due to the pandemic.
The aim of each outreach project is two-fold, explained Mr Fotuhi.
"As parents, all we want for our children is to be happy and to have a positive impact. These overseas expeditions achieve both targets," he said.
"Our kids get to switch off from technology, enjoy some good exercise, all while having a positive impact on the communities they're visiting."
A trip to Uganda is next on the list, but the projects are now getting so popular Mr Fotuhi is considering setting up a dedicated platform to organise more of them each year.
"This way, more UAE families and host communities would be able to benefit from our unique formula of impact travel," he said.
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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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