This weekend marks the 12th anniversary of The Nationwide newspaper’s 2008 launch. We gained’t be marking the day in particular person with our workforce as we normally do, however there shall be some quiet contemplation of our previous.
The Nationwide’s first version hit the streets on April 17, 2008 and featured a entrance web page image of the winning smile of Sharjah resident Nabeel Kamran, then 12 years outdated, who had turn out to be the primary youngster within the UAE to endure a life-saving kidney transplant. A lot of our focus in 2020 stays on healthcare reporting because the nation commits to an expansive programme of testing and affected person wellbeing within the face of Covid-19. The advances in well being care within the UAE are among the many many developments The Nationwide has been recording in our 12 years.
Nabeel Kamran at his dwelling in Sharjah 5 years after his story about organ transplant was printed in The Nationwide in 2008. Pawan Singh / The Nationwide
On the time of launch, the nation’s skyline was altering day by day as buildings rose and cranes operated virtually in every single place you regarded. Abu Dhabi was busy making ready to stage its first F1 race the following year and Dubai was racing in the direction of the completion of the world’s tallest building. We started life dedicated to bringing you high-quality reporting on the area’s greatest tales. We’re equally devoted to that promise as we speak.
However in some ways, the story behind how the headlines get to you as we speak is an equally compelling narrative.
The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix has been held at Yas Marina Circuit yearly since 2009. Mark Sutton/Sutton Pictures
Three years in the past, after being acquired by Worldwide Media Investments, The Nationwide underwent a comprehensive relaunch of the print version and a whole digital transformation led by a brand new administration workforce. That programme of renewal now reveals up in virtually each nook of your digital lives – via alerts, social media, video, podcasts, newsletters and through our web site and app – in addition to in our at the moment subscriber-only award-winning print version.
Final month, we underwent one other section of digital transformation, transferring the paper from one bustling newsroom in Abu Dhabi to a set of newsrooms assembled within the houses of our employees within the UAE, following the Authorities directive to earn a living from home and to remain protected. It’s a course of that has additionally been undertaken in London by our bureau workforce and by our correspondents and contributors around the globe as restriction of motion orders turn out to be part of day by day life virtually in every single place.
Sanitation staff from Tadweer on the primary day of the UAE cleansing marketing campaign. Victor Besa / The Nationwide
A commuter enters the brand new sterilisation space on the entrance of the Abu Dhabi Central Bus Terminal.Victor Besa / The Nationwide
A lady and her kids seen throughout cloudy skies in Al Furjan space in Dubai. Pawan Singh / The Nationwide
A person sporting a protecting face masks crosses the foot bridge close to Al Karama space in Dubai. Pawan Singh / The Nationwide
A person seen through the night in Al Furjan space in Dubai. Pawan Singh / The Nationwide
A supply driver sporting a face masks at downtown Abu Dhabi. Victor Besa / The Nationwide
The view of the Burj Khalifa with none guests in Downtown Dubai in Dubai. Pawan Singh / The Nationwide
Boki Prekovic performs every afternoon from his balcony to maintain residents caught at dwelling entertained. Chris Whiteoak / The Nationwide
Two males on a ship put on face masks on Dubai Creek. Chris Whiteoak / The Nationwide
A employee sporting a protecting go well with disinfects a globe in a public backyard, in Algiers. Reuters
Muslim worshippers circumambulate the sacred Kaaba in Makkah’s Grand Mosque. Saudi Arabia prolonged curfew restrictions on Islam’s two holiest cities. AFP
Moroccan well being staff scan passengers arriving from Italy on March 3. AFP
A Jordanian police officer is seen at a checkpoint on March 25. Reuters
A Jordanian well being employee pictured on March 31. Reuters
Individuals journey on an overcrowded prepare on the outskirts of earlier than a curfew ordered by the Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly on March 26. Reuters
Palestinians collect on the seaside because the solar units over Gaza Metropolis on March 28. EPA
A member of a medical workforce sprays disinfectant as a precaution in opposition to the coronavirus outbreak at a tuk-tuk three wheel motorbike in Shobra district in Cairo, Egypt on April 3. EPA
A Moroccan well being ministry employee disinfects a person strolling a canine within the capital Rabat on MArch 22. AFP
In Algiers, Algeria, a girl seen in an empty bus station. Reuters
A Tunisian Crimson Crescent member prepares meals packages to be delivered to the aged and needy households on March 31. EPA
Staff disinfect desks and chairs within the Lebanese Parliament in central Beirut on March 10. AFP
Travellers returning to Kuwait from Egypt, Syria and Lebanon arrive to be re-tested at a Kuwaiti well being ministry containment and screening zone in Kuwait Metropolis on March 16. AFP
A employee disinfects a home in a neighbourhood within the central Iraqi holy metropolis of Najaf on March 23. AFP
Medical doctors check a resident of Baghdad’s suburb of Sadr Metropolis for the coronavirus on April 2. AFP
Kuwaiti policemen sporting protecting masks wait at Sheikh Saad Airport in Kuwait Metropolis,b efore transferring Kuwaitis arriving from Iran to a hospital to be examined for coronavirus on February 22. AFP
Iranian sanitary staff disinfect Qom’s Masumeh shrine on to stop the unfold of the coronavirus on February 25. AFP
A view of beds at a shopping center, certainly one of Iran’s largest, which has been was a centre to obtain sufferers affected by the coronavirus illness (COVID-19), in Tehran on April 4. Reuters
A Lebanese worker sporting a protecting masks seems to be at a mattress in a ward on the Rafik Hariri College Hospital the place the primary coronavirus case was admitted on Feburary 22. AFP
Medical employees in protecting gears distribute data sheets to Iraqi passengers coming back from Iran at Najaf Worldwide Airport on March 5. AFP
Workers of the Fatih Municipality sporting protecting fits disinfect the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul on MArch 13. AFP
Sanitation staff from Tadweer spraying the pedestrian crossing on Hamdan and Fatima Bint Mubarak Road on March 27. Victor Besa / The Nationwide
Colin and his spouse Hilda run a marathon on their balcony on March 28 whereas the Metropolis of Dubai is underneath a Keep At House coverage to maintain residence protected from the unfold of Covid-19. Antonie Robertson / The Nationwide
faculty buses parked exterior International Village on April 1. Chris Whiteoak / The Nationwide
The brand new screening drive-thru for COVID-19 at Zayed Sports activities Metropolis, Abu Dhabi. Chris Whiteoak / The Nationwide
Working from home brings challenges to each particular person used to working in a busy workplace atmosphere, they don’t seem to be distinctive to this newspaper, however it’s truthful to say that this period is certainly one of intense studying and nice growth for The Nationwide.
The day by day calls for of our digital and print merchandise have grown on this interval as you, our readers, search quick and correct reporting concerning the pandemic. Our working lives at the moment are punctuated by videoconferences and on the spot messages fairly than workplace dialogue and cellphone calls, as tales break and info are checked. Our days are pushed ahead by a mixture of sensible expertise and good old style enterprise undertaken by a dedicated workforce of reporters, editors, photographers, videographers and design and manufacturing employees.
As a paper and as a rustic at massive, we’re stronger now than we’ve got ever been. Our communities are extra linked – albeit in a bodily distanced approach – and our respect for one another grows day by day.
We don’t know after we will all be again collectively in a single newsroom, however two issues we do know for positive: that our 12th birthday coincides with an unforgettable second within the paper’s and the nation’s historical past; and that The Nationwide shall be on the forefront of reporting on the UAE and the world overcoming the good challenges of as we speak.
