Early Dreamers of the UAE

Our Jubilee is a joyful celebration of the human journey that made this nation.  Unlike previous anniversaries, our Year of the 50th is more than just a cause for celebration. It is a moment to reflect collectively on what we’ve achieved in our first fifty years and a strategic investment designed to unite the nation in delivering on the promise of the next 50 years.

The UAE is built by the Dreamers - our Founding Father, our grandparents, great-grandparents and their children - our parents - who believed in the nation we are today. Who dared not only to dream - but to step out into unchartered territory to make those dreams reality.  In the Year of the Jubilee, it is time to capture THEIR Story - the thousands of men and women whose individual stories weave together for OUR story as a nation. Knowing our story as a nation now tells us who we are and how to get to where we are going next.  In other words, understanding our first 50 years is crucial to knowing how to shape our next 50 years.

 I am beyond excited to announce an exciting initiative championed by the Jubilee Celebration Committee. The UAE’s Early Dreamers Initiative, is a living, written record of thousands of Early Dreamers stories that built the first 50 years of the UAE.  And we are asking Youth to take the reign.

Conversation is one of the primary places we express who we are and what we believe about the world; conversations are vital to draw out our stories but they are not where our stories live. 

Our stories carry on in the living people and written legacy for every one of us. We are one another’s living archives.  And when we tell one another’s stories, we keep one another alive.  When we write them down, our stories become eternal.  

Our stories are the UAE’s true SuperPower. The nation we are today is made of millions of stories. Stories of how our Bedouin forefathers and mothers, our Early Dreamers, started this great nation; How the early expats helped them; How families, workers and communities carried forth their mission; How Youth ideas are shaping our future. Our stories are those of everyone who chose paths to contribute to our great nation.  Our story is one of diverse Dreamers Who Do.

Starting today send your videos, audio recordings, essays, poems, photos and illustrations capturing the Doers and Dreamers stories of the UAE to {https://uaeyearof.ae/}. And don’t box yourself into one way of communicating - get creative!  Just like our Early Dreamers did!

It is our dream that this Initiative ignites thousands of Family Conversations while we are home with our families during Ramadan.  Through your Family Conversations, we can fill our nation’s Social Archive our Early Dreamers’ treasures.  This is our true wealth.

There’s something about hearing the stories that formed our nation that helps us dream with our eyes wide open.