Dubai - MENA Herald: In line with its commitment to children as the future leaders of tomorrow, du has committed to deliver 120 iPads preloaded with the BabNoor app to children from Sharjah City for Humanitarian Services. Developed by Flagship Projects, BabNoor is the first Arabic language app in the region, which is intended to complement and eventually replace physical, visual and pictorial reference cards for children with special needs.
The centres under the Sharjah City for Humanitarian Services that will benefit from this project include Sharjah Autism Centre, which will receive 42 iPads; Al Wafa School for Developmental Training, which will benefit from 22 iPads; and Early Intervention Centre, which will receive 15 iPads. Additionally, the initiative will benefit City Branch Khorfakkan and City Branch Kalba with 17 iPads each, as well as City Branch Dhaid with seven iPads.
Mona Abdul Karim Al Yafei, Deputy Director-General of the Sharjah City for Humanitarian Services, said: “We truly value this initiative by du, which supports children with special needs in various areas of daily life, including school, home or among society. In the Sharjah City for Humanitarian Services, we stay abreast of the latest technological advancements at work to support people with special needs, and Babnoor represents a major push forward towards achieving our goals in enabling this segment. We would like to thank du and Flagship for their effective and ongoing efforts, and looking forward to taking this collaboration forward.”
“The BabNoor app offers a holistic approach to engaging with children who have unique communication requirements by offering them continuous access to a powerful communication tool. We believe that it will revolutionise communications for these children and have a positive impact on the entire special needs community in the UAE by becoming an integral part of their lives,” said Hala Badri, Executive Vice President, Brand and Communications, du. “Our continued support of the UAE youth from all backgrounds is a natural extension of our unwavering commitment to the UAE community and all of its people.”
BabNoor is a first-of-its-kind application specifically developed for local Arabic dialects. The content of the Babnoor app is endorsed by speech therapists. In addition, it provides the institution and the developer the option of further customising the app based on usage patterns and statistics collected, thus offering an improved product. The app supports a range of disabilities, such as autism, hearing and speech impairments, Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, and trauma injuries.
To assist children with nonverbal autism and other disabilities, du has joined hands with Flagship Projects and various centres for special needs in Sharjah, Abu Dhabi and Dubai to provide close to 400 iPads installed with the revolutionary BabNoor app. As part of the project, du will also train teachers and parents at these centres to ensure proper use of the app while closely monitoring each child’s communication progress resulting from the use of BabNoor.
