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DSS to spruce up beauty of Dubai

"Keeping in view the magnitude of the DSS every passing year, it has been our endeavour to showcase the charms and excitement that this 10-week event epitomises. Hence, we strive to spruce up the Emirate to reflect the fun and thrill that DSS stands for," Yousif Mubarak, Administration Director of DSS, said. Giving details of the decoration planned for DSS this season, Mr Mubarak said, "We will be showcasing something unique this year because the residents, especially the kids, eagerly await the advent of DSS. We felt the need to come up with innovative activities to showcase Dubai as an ideal tourism destination."

Volunteers gear up for extravaganza

THE Dubai Summer Surprises (DSS) Office, in cooperation with Happy Family Centre, is organising a series of training sessions for the volunteers who will be handling the various activities at different venues of the 10-week extravaganza, especially the Modhesh Fun City (MFC). The volunteers have been sifted from over hundreds of applications from various schools, colleges and universities in the UAE.

Ibrahim Saleh, Chief Operations Officer of DSS, said, "The participation of the volunteers in the DSS extravaganza is an annual feature now. It is a tradition set right from the first DSS to encourage students to be a part of the whole exercise, which plays such a big role in everyone's life and helps boosts the skills of all students involved."

He added that the main objective of the training sessions is to make the volunteers aware of their responsibilities, to equip them with the spirit, emotion and teamwork and to prepare them to face the challenges of the future. These volunteers will be at hand for any assistance required at all the venues of the DSS activities.

A total of 150 volunteers in the age group of 15-22 years are undergoing the training programme, which deals with varied topics helping them to handle the various tasks effectively without any problems and to mitigate any obstacles.

The training sessions, which commenced on Saturday, is of two-hour duration each. The four-day training programme entails various topics imparted by specialised trainers and experts from around the region. Among the topics are Skills of Training, which is being imparted by Dr Abdulrahman Zakhir from Iraq, Be Confident - You Can Do it by Engineer Adil Al Zaabi from UAE, Impressive Personality dealing with interpersonal relations by Engineer Ali Ghanem Al Taweel from UAE, and How to Promote Modhesh Fun City by Khamis Al Bandh from UAE.

"The training sessions are highly interactive and the volunteers have shown a lot of enthusiasm to be part of the programme, which will go a long way in making DSS 2004 a huge success story," added Mr Saleh.

As part of the training programme, several workshops are also being organised, which equip the volunteers to face the problems effectively.

They will also be going through several case studies that will help them in overcoming any hitches during the 10-week extravaganza, the sources said.

Arts Surprises at DSS

DUBAI Summer Surprises 2004 will begin with Arts Surprises presented by Department of Naturalisation and Residency in Dubai from June 17-23, followed by Ice Surprises by Dubai Electricity and Water Authority from June 24-30, Sweets Surprises by Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing from July 1-7, Cartoon Surprises by Dubai Ports Authority from July 8-14, Flower Surprises by Dubai Municipality from July 15-21, Heritage Surprises by Dubai Customs from July 22-28, Adventure Surprises by Dubai Police from July 29-August 4, Knowledge Surprises by Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry from August 5-11, Back-2-School Surprises by the Department of Economic Development from August 12-18 and ends with the Colour Surprises by the Department of Health and Medical Sciences from August 19- 27, 2004.

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