Out of their feeling of responsibility and as their role as “Mass Communication” students, and to take the initiative in the development of the society and change the common concepts, and support the special needs and integrate them into society, a group of female students of UAEU “Department of Mass communication” launched “Initiate, you can make it” initiative aimed at special needs persons to encourage them to enter the media field. This initiative is one of the graduation projects for those students to be presented on the stage of the “College of Information Technology” at its new campus in “Al Ain City”.

                     

This idea was introduced by “Lana Hussein”, a student at the “Department of Mass Communication” majoring in “Radio and TV Broadcasting”, who noticed that a big segment of special needs persons are eager to enter the media field, with so many successful experiences, and therefore, she became a role model. Many questions and inquiries in the field of media have been asked through social media platforms, which addressed this segment, such as “the capability of radio and TV presentation, writing, public speaking, debating, and photo shooting”. After answering these questions, the participant is classified as “able” to take on the challenge and enter the media field.

                     

Dr. “Hebatallah El Semary”, from the “Department of Mass Communication” and the supervisor of the initiative, explained that this project has been ranked first among the other projects as students proved that the project’s idea is humane, innovative, and applicable, especially that the UAE government has provided all care facilities, and the integration policy of people with special needs into the State. Such an initiative has received a great response from the jury which was comprised of faculty members and the Emirati media specialist “Jamal Salem”. “Mariam Al Kaabi”, a student, said that this segment comprises (13.5%) of the world’s population which equals around (900) million people, (30) millions of them are in Arab countries, explaining that there are a lot of success stories in the Emirati society as the success story of the announcers  “Ahmed Al Ghafli” and “Mohammed Al Hosni”. The students also hosted the Emirati announcer “Mohammed Albloushi” to talk about his successful experience in the media field despite his disability.

 

To make the initiative a success, and to promote it inside and outside the university, “Mohra Al Ahbabi”, a participant, said that they went to “Dubai Media Incorporated” to shoot a short film to emphasize the target of the initiative, which is, “Breaking the barrier of fear and shame, and freedom from disability”. They also had short interviews with “Ali Al Rumaithi”, CEO of “Dubai Media Incorporated”, who supported the project with lots of successful examples, and he mentioned the challenges and hardships which those people with disabilities went through and were able to overcome to achieve consecutive successes. This initiative is the graduation project of "Mariam Al Kaabi", "Rita Hussein", "Hadeel Abdelkader", "Sarah Othman" and "Mohra Al Ahbabi" and received interaction from a lot of people both locally and internationally through social media platforms; Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.