05 February 2014, Dubai, UAE – After completing six month work training at Villa Rotana, Rihab Rotana and Rimal Rotana, the first group of special needs students from Rashid Centre for Disabled had an incredible life changing and learning experience. The students have been trained in order to acquire vocational skills to help them in the future with better job opportunities when they graduate from the centre.
This hotels initiative, a first-of-its-kind humanitarian project initiated in the UAE in 2009, was launched with an aim to open the door to specialized training of special needs students. Each year, the project receives in each of the three hotels, between three and six Rashid Centre students selected by the Centre’s management to receive six to eight months of training under the supervision of the Centre’s social assistance cell and the human resource department of the hotels.

Mr. Kinan Al Ghraoui, General Manager of Villa Rotana, Rihab Rotana and Rimal Rotana said: “Five years already and still have much to do with Rashid Centre students. Villa Rotana, Rihab Rotana and Rimal Rotana are always committed to support young students with special needs and make them get familiar with a real work environment”.

Following the completion of the first group, a new group of Rashid Centre students will join the training programme at Villa Rotana, Rihab Rotana and Rimal Rotana. Each year after their graduation, the hotels organize a ceremony where all the participants receive a graduation certificate from Rotana Hotels and Resorts.