Outside one late afternoon last month, the streets of Dubai Internet City were mostly quiet, as is typical during Ramadan. Inside GE’s offices though, a group of 35 adults and children were busy.

Some were putting boxes together. Others were sorting the 7,500kg of essential food items contributed by countless GE employees over the previous weeks.

A third group was packing the boxes with food items such as cooking oil, lentils, rice, tea, and sugar in an assembly line worthy of a GE Vernova or GE Aerospace maintenance or manufacturing plant.

In all, the GE employees, and their family and friends, packed nearly 430 Ramadan Cares Boxes and delivered them to local nonprofit Royati and the Emirates Red Crescent, which then shipped the food to families in Syria displaced by conflict and the recent earthquake. In addition, 40 of the boxes were given to office support staff at GE’s three Dubai offices in gratitude for their essential contributions to the company.

Also during Ramadan, GE Volunteers participated in an initiative called Kiswat Eid Shopping, run in association with The Big Heart Foundation and Rawafed Development & Learning Centre. Over several days, nearly 50 GE Volunteers met one-on-one with a total of 100 children from disadvantaged families to help them select and purchase new clothing for the Eid holiday.

In all, more than 2,300 people in the UAE and Syria benefitted from the two events, thanks to the contributions of GE employees during the holy month.

“GE Volunteers offers an opportunity for employees and their families and friends to get together doing things hands-on for the good of society,” said Shishir Ojha, Council Leader for GE Volunteers UAE.

“This is very much in the spirit of Ramadan: helping one another, making positive change. These activities help GE employees make a difference in and connect with their communities,” he said.

While the focus of these events is on service, the GE Volunteers organization represents an important aspect of the company’s culture, Shishir said.

“When I joined GE eight years ago, right away I noticed a difference in how my new colleagues were engaged in community activities. That’s where I felt something unique about GE,” he said. “GE Volunteers is a grassroots organization focused on mobilizing the company’s internal human resources and providing them with opportunities to help others.”

The two Ramadan programs represent just one important season of activity for the broader year-round GE Volunteer activity calendar. Last year, GE Volunteer initiatives touched the lives of more than 6,000 adults and children in events ranging from refurbishing computers and recycling office furniture to hosting children of determination for a day of fun and games at GE’s Internet City offices.

Read more here about how GE supports the communities in which it operates in the UAE and across the Middle East, North Africa and Turkiye region.