OmanPride: Opal’s first mobile library programme gets underway

More sports Sunday 29/October/2017 18:39 PM
By: Times News Service
OmanPride: Opal’s first mobile library programme gets underway

A mobile library operated by Dar Al Atta’a is touring villages and towns across Muscat to collect donations for Oman’s Society for Petroleum Services’ (Opal’s) programme. “We worked with Dar Al Atta’a at the beginning of this year and we donated a library bus,” said Musallam Al Mandhary, chief executive officer of Opal. Maktabati, which is Oman’s first mobile library programme, is aimed at promoting the habit of reading among young Omani children. The bus goes to different villages, towns, and schools of Oman and provides a range of books to children to choose from. The mobile library also makes appearances at special events and festivals.
“The bus is fully equipped as a library and is very nicely done,” he said, explaining how the bus has a wide range of books, including novels, short stories, and poetry books for children of different age groups. The project is an off-shoot of Dar Al Atta’a’s ‘Let’s Read Campaign’ that has been encouraging children develop the habit of reading since 2007.

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Opal contributed a considerable sum of money to get the wheels on this project turning. “This was a OMR40,000 project and we donated for the bus,” said Musallam. The customised bus is part of Opal’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiative that the company is extremely proud to have undertaken. “We are very proud for Opal being a part of this partnership with Dar Al Atta’a.”
Opal’s motive is to channelise funds received from this non-profit organisation’s members to community projects. Opal has been actively supporting a number of other causes and events as part of their CSR initiative. They have been actively promoting employee training and have recently signed an MoU with Eshraqa, Khimji Ramdas’ social development arm to promote and fulfil the nation’s training and development needs.
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