Charities

As part of the two entities’ school-building programme, the construction of the first school in Nepal is completed and is now accepting students

In 2018, Idealz launched its school-building programme in collaboration with Dubai Cares, where the e-commerce platform and organisation joined forces to build and operate a fleet of schools in the least developed countries with limited access to quality education. Today, as part of that programme, the entities announced the official opening of its very first school in Nepal since the start of their project. The partnership was founded on the beliefs of founder, Jad Toubayly, that education is the key to improving one’s quality of life, and this belief has been ingrained in the very foundation of Idealz’ business model.

The launch of the first school in the ongoing school-building project is situated within the rural town of Naukhari and can accommodate up to 321 students for the upcoming year. Nepal has an average literacy rate of 50 per cent, and in rural villages such as Naukhari, which is mostly made up of subsistence farmers who breed livestock and grow crops for a living, there is an average literacy rate of 20 per cent. With the help of Idealz and Dubai Cares’ school-building programme, children in Nepal will be handed opportunities to further grow their educational experience and will be introduced to quality education within a comfortable school ground.

To date, Idealz has allocated substantial funding towards the building of schools for disadvantaged children around the world, with further projects in Cambodia, Malawi, and Senegal. Undertaking to build six to 12 schools per year in each country from Dubai Cares’ list, Idealz aims to lead by example and pave the way for companies to further contribute to social responsibility.

Since its inception, Idealz has set out to battle the disparity of lack of education in the least-developed countries head-on and has augmented its offering by allowing customers to be the change they want to see in the world. With the global youth literacy rate increasing from 83 per cent to 91 per cent over the last two decades, regional disparities persist. Literacy is lowest in the least-developed countries with over 100 million of the global youth left with no access to quality primary education. With a mission to tackle this, Idealz has an added feature that provides customers with the option to donate the products they purchase to charity in return for an additional complimentary ticket to the prize draw, thus doubling their chances of winning. Idealz then aggregates the products that are donated by customers and offers them to Dubai Cares, a UAE-based philanthropic organisation the e-commerce platform has partnered with, where a buy back is done at the option of the organisation, in exchange for cash to fund the building of schools and other such projects. With each purchase allowing customers to contribute to the building of schools in the least-developed countries, Idealz places social responsibility at the core of its value proposition.

“We are ecstatic to announce the opening of our school in Nepal from our school-building programme. This is an opportunity that most children living under these circumstances only dream of, and in partnership with Dubai Cares we are able to provide youth with access to quality education and hope for a better future.” explained Idealz founder, Jad Toubayly.

Idealz launched its platform with the goal of transforming the online shopping experience for its customers. In doing this, Idealz inverted the shopping formula by incentivising sales through sizable value-added propositions where the company sells its products in limited quantity campaigns, and customers receive complimentary tickets into specified prize draws with every purchase.

To ensure transparency and integrity, all Idealz draws are regulated by the Business Registration and Licensing Division of Dubai Economy or the Raffle Department of Dubai Festivals and Retail Establishment. Additionally, the company’s donations to Dubai Cares and activities are approved and moderated by the Islamic Affairs and Charitable Activities Department (IACAD).