DOHA: The whole Academic Bridge Programme (ABP) community celebrated their 10th anniversary with the first-ever ABP Charity Carnival yesterday at the Liberal Arts and Sciences (LAS) building.
"This is the first annual Carnival for the ABP whose main purpose is to raise money for the project of Reach Out To Asia (ROTA) in Pakistan which is to rebuild schools destroyed by earthquake," Dr Miles Lovelace, Director, Academic Bridge Program, told The Peninsula.
The event saw hundreds of ABP students, faculty members, alumni and visitors from the Education City community sampling a wide range of food from traditional food to pastries to sweets all with the goal to help those in need at the Government Preparatory School. Gift items such as bags, T-shirts, mugs, caps were also made available in addition to face painting, bouncy castles and other games for children.
Every one who entered the venue bought a ticket for a chance to enter the raffle draw to win prizes such as free dinner and a ticket to anywhere in Europe courtesy of Turkish Airlines.
But the main highlight of the event was the "ABP Got Talent" show which showcased talents of students and faculty members.
"All the money that we are going to collect today will be given to ROTA to be used to rebuild a school in Pakistan which was destroyed by an earthquake. The school is not operating and in terrible condition, so we agreed that we would help them rebuild the school which is located in the North-Western part of Pakistan," said Lovelace, adding they were targeting to raise QR30,000.
"We have often allowed ROTA to place contribution boxes to collect money for ROTA but this is the first time we have organised a big event like this," he said.
Asked about why they chose ROTA as the beneficiary of the event, he said: "ROTA is involved in projects which are of interest to us as a school. There are lots of schools which have been destroyed by the earthquake, floods and other calamities in Pakistan and as a school we should try to help another school."
"All we want to do is help students who are not going to school have an opportunity for education."
© The Peninsula 2011
