Our story

In January 2017 young people from Fujairah, led by Fatima Saeed Al Shehyari, formed the Sawaed Zayed Volunteer Team. By the end of the year it had organised National Day celebrations with the Emiri Court and Kalba Municipality, joined the "million signatures of loyalty" campaign and held its first ceremony honouring volunteers at the Fujairah Chamber of Commerce.

The first "Ramadan with Sawaed Zayed" ran under the slogan "Zayed's goodness lives in Zayed's children", sponsored by Sheikh Ahmed bin Hamad bin Saif Al Sharqi. The team organised the Fujairah International Open Taekwondo Championship, took part in Innovation Week with the Crown Prince, served Arafah Day meals and worked in Qidfa and Murbah.

Tolerance Coffee for Friday worshippers, the play "Spirit of Tolerance" at Sharjah Heritage Days, the Leading Footprint award to the team's head, and in Ramadan a visit to H.H. Sheikh Hamad bin Mohammed Al Sharqi, Ruler of Fujairah. In June the press counted 400 volunteers in seven divisions, active across the seven emirates.

• Al Ittihad · 6 June 2019 ↗
  400 people in the Zayed Volunteer Team

On 15 June 2019 Ministerial Decision 143/2019 licensed the team as the Sawaed Emirates Volunteer Society, the first volunteer association of its kind in Fujairah. The first general assembly elected a board chaired by Fatima Al Shehyari; in September the board was received by H.H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad Al Sharqi, Crown Prince of Fujairah.

• Al Bayan · 11 August 2019 ↗
  Sawaed Emirates Volunteer Society declared in Fujairah
• Al Ittihad · 29 September 2019 ↗
  Fujairah declares the Sawaed Emirates Volunteer Society

Awareness videos from March, protective kits and safety material in several languages for workers, an online Ramadan council, and from August the 100 Good Deeds challenge: one positive act a day, for a hundred days, with the Ubuntu Love Challenge and the Ministry.

In the Year of the 50th the association began publishing every opportunity on the national volunteering portal. From this point each event carries a verified attendance list and verified hours: the record you can browse on this site.

When the "Al Fahd" depression flooded Fujairah, the association launched "In Love with the House of Al Sharqi": volunteers cleaned homes and streets with Fujairah Municipality and companies that gave their services for free. That spring the press counted more than 3,200 volunteers and members.

• Al Ittihad · 5 August 2022 ↗
  May evil spare you, people of Fujairah: a Sawaed Emirates initiative
• Al Ittihad · 17 April 2022 ↗
  3,200 volunteers in Sawaed Emirates

In December 2024 the association signed a cooperation agreement with the Misr El Kheir Foundation in Cairo for youth innovation, training and programmes for people of determination, and its chair met Egypt's Minister of Youth and Sports, Dr Ashraf Sobhi, to plan the "Arab Volunteer Pioneers Ship", a joint volunteering initiative for Egyptian and Emirati youth.

• Tawasul 24 (Egypt) · 19 December 2024 ↗
  Misr El Kheir signs a cooperation agreement with Sawaed Emirates for youth innovation initiatives

Ninety-one activities in one year, by the annual report, the Emirates Villages Summer in Qidfa as the largest programme, and the third general assembly on 4 May 2025.

By Ministerial Decision 25/2026 the association became Swaed UAE Association For Culture and Community Empowerment, with eight objectives that reach beyond volunteering into community and cultural empowerment across the seven emirates. The same year it launched this platform and its app, so that every hour a volunteer gives is recorded and certified.