A lifeline for an Egyptian expat

World Tuesday 05/December/2017 15:00 PM
By: Times News Service
A lifeline for an Egyptian expat

Abu Dhabi: When you lose your job in a foreign land, you have very few choices left. The first thing that comes to your mind is to get money from some quarters to meet daily expenses and needs of the family, specially the fees of school children.
If it's mid-semester of kids, the problems galore. Under such circumstances you try to find alternatives to prolong your stay. But getting money from even close friends is impossible because nobody wants to lend even a penny to an unemployed person.
Under such a scenario the best option is to pack your bag and go home. But as a last ditch effort , everyone tries to have another go at the job market .
Though under tremendous pressure, Emad Hamdi of Egypt considers himself one of the luckiest person on this planet as he got the lifeline and hopes he would get a job in the future, too . Losing his job due to the economic slowdown and ballooning family expenditure, he had lost hope of finding one and was also short of money.
As a last measure, his Amercian friend advised him to try his luck at the Abu Dhabi Duty Free Big Ticket Draw. But he did not have the money to buy the ticket. Fortunately, his American friend lent him his credit card to buy a ticket which he promised him to return with whatever savings he had at his home.
Miracles do happen and one day while he was searching for jobs, he thought of looking at the big ticket results and to his big surprise, his name was in the winners' list. But he couldn't beleive his eyes and called his wife to doubly check the results. After his wife confirmed the results, they started screaming and dancing in their home.
Now Emadi is confident that he will get a new job as the lucky draw has given him the lifline so that he can stay in Abu Dhabi for some more time and get a new job. Now, he can also pay the fees of his children for a few more months.
Emadi was sharing his experiences with the guests at a gala dinner at the at Park Hyatt in Abu Dhabi on Decermber 1.
In fact, most of the prize winners were unanimous in their decision that they wanted to spend a part of their money on the social welfare and uplift of their community. They were determined to see to it that the needy gets proper education and helathcare so that they can join the mainstream and work for the development of the country.
The majority of the winners being Indians, the managing director Glenn Morgan of the DFS Middle East LLC Abu Dhabi, trashed the allegations that the group favoured Indians. Indians being the largest expat coummunity in the Gulf region, they do occupy prime space in every field and are also one of the biggest buyers of the tickets. He proudly dispalyed his team members which comprised people of many nationalities.
The grand prize winners and consolation prize winners of Big Ticket draw from January to October attended the event. Even 15 participants from November's ultimate big ticket were present on the occasion. Abu Dhabi Duty Free launched on December 1 the Dream 12 big ticket draw with the grand prize being AED12,000,000.