Rotana collaborates with Médecins Sans Frontières in support of their numerous humanitarian projects worldwide.

Rotana announced its collaboration with Médecins Sans Frontières (Atiba Bila Hudood/MSF/Doctors without Borders), by launching its fund raising campaign "Add a light to someone's life", that will see donations made by Rotana to this international humanitarian organization.

It is hoped that this first MSF-Rotana initiative will generate close on a quarter of a million Dirhams in support of their various worldwide projects which focus on providing aid to people whose survival is threatened by violence, neglect, or catastrophe, primarily due to armed conflict, epidemics, malnutrition, and exclusion from health care or natural disasters.

The funds will be generated by offering a candle as a yearend gift to all our partners and clients, in place of a more conventional corporate gift, with the difference in value being donated to the fund. The candle is the symbol of the "Add a light to someone's life" campaign and Rotana's support for MSF and to their humanitarian mission in more than 70 countries.

"This collaboration comes as a result of Rotana's commitment to corporate social responsibility and has been initiated across all Rotana properties in the MENA Region, during the last quarter of 2009," said Mr. Selim El Zyr, President & CEO of Rotana.

El Zyr continued "We are indeed very privileged to be associated with Médecins Sans Frontières. We strongly believe that this initiative, which is only the beginning of Rotana's contributions to MSF,  will raise awareness in the Middle East about the plight of populations living in crisis zones, create dialogue forums to interact with national communities and to seek for private resources to support MSF independent activities."

Commenting on this news, Mr. Marc Sauvagnac, Executive Director of MSF said:
"We are very honored and grateful that Rotana commits to a sustainable partnership with MSF to support its actions, raise awareness, and foster interactions with national communities in the UAE and the Middle East at large. For nearly 40 years, MSF teams, sharing the same humanitarian principles, associate together to provide high-quality medical care to people in need. Access to the most vulnerable, especially in conflicts settings, requires that MSF be recognized as a non-state and independent humanitarian actor. This independence, which also gives MSF the means to intervene immediately in case of emergency situations, relies on the confidence and the sustainable support of individuals, companies and other private institutions. We are very thankful that, through this first contribution to MSF, Rotana associates its customers, stake holders and staff, to commit together to participate to MSF independent actions."

Médecins Sans Frontières is an international medical humanitarian organization created in 1971. Today, MSF provides aid to people whose survival is threatened by violence, neglect, or catastrophe, primarily due to armed conflict, epidemics, malnutrition, and exclusion from health care or natural disasters.

Annually, some 3,000 volunteer doctors, nurses and expert teams, alongside 25,000 national colleagues provide independent, impartial assistance to those most in need in nearly 60 countries. MSF reserves the right to speak out, to bring attention to neglected crises, to challenge inadequacies or abuse of the aid system, and to advocate for improved medical treatments and protocols.

MSF medical teams conduct evaluations on the ground to determine a population's medical needs before opening programs. The key to MSF's ability to act independently in response to a crisis is its independent funding. Eighty-nine percent of MSF's overall resources come from private donors, not governments. MSF has more than four million individual donors and private funders worldwide.