It will be full of date palm trees, and all fruit will be donated to the needy.

The creation of any kind of green space in this city is always a cause for celebration – but Dubai’s newest park will have an extra special purpose.

Dubai Municipality has announced the opening of Charity Oasis, which is being dubbed the “world’s first charity park”.

What makes it a charity park? Well, it will have thousands of date palms that will produce fruit to be donated to less fortunate members of our society.

The park will be located adjacent to Mushrif Park in Deira.

. بدأت بلدية دبي تنفيذ مشروع أول حديقة خيرية للوقف الجماعي في العالم والتي تحمل اسم #واحة_الإحسان وذلك بالتنسيق مع مركز محمد بن راشد العالمي لاستشارات الوقف والهبة، حيث ستتم زراعة الحديقة بمنهجية مبتكرة مبنية على التعهيد الجماعي وستتاح الفرصة لأفراد المجتمع ولأول مرة المشاركة في إنشاء الحديقة الجديدة من خلال تبرعهم بأشجار النخيل من بيوتهم ومزارعهم Dubai Municipality has started implementing the first charity park in the world #CharityOasis in collaboration with Mohammed bin Rashid Global Centre for Endowment Consultancy, where the garden will be planted with an innovative methodology based on collective outsourcing. Also, community members will have the opportunity to participate in the construction of the new park by donating palm trees from their homes and farms @mbrendowment #دبي #بلدية_دبي #واحة_الإحسان #Dubai #mydubai #dubaimunicipality #CharityOasis

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“It is a 15-acre plot which can accommodate 2100 date palm trees,” said Hussain Nasser Lootah, director general of Dubai Municipality.

“We welcome the members of the public to donate date palm trees to this park.”

As Gulf News reports, the park is expected to produce a whopping 150 tonnes of dates every year, starting from next summer.

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HOW CAN I HELP?

Anyone in the UAE is able to donate a date palm to the park, as long as certain conditions are met. All you have to do is contact the Municipality’s call centre on 800900 to find out more.

According to Yazan Awwad, a senior landscape specialist who is involved in the project, you can buy a date palm tree for around Dhs1000 from a nursery.

“We will be displaying the names of the donors at the park,” he told Gulf News.

“This will be something the next generations can see because date palm trees last for six to seven decades.”

The date palm is a fitting choice for the park, considering it was once described by HH Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan as the “tree of life”.

“For us, the date palm is, and always has been, truly the tree of life,” he wrote in his book, Feast of Dates.

“We have grown up with this remarkable species and its many products and find it impossible to imagine life without it. When we admire a date palm, we are looking at the foundations of our civilisation and the sustaining force for countless generations.”

As well as being generally delicious, dates are a superfood with many health benefits. So this really is a ‘sweet’ initiative…

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