Oman’s Online Donations Portal receives Arab e-Content Award

Oman’s Online Donations Portal has won the Arab Regional e-Content award in the e-inclusion category under the World Summit Awards program. The Information Technology Authority’s (ITA) in association with the Ministry of Social Development had launched the official online donations portal www.onlinedonations.org.om  in January 2009.

This bilingual portal available in both Arabic and English facilitates electronic payment of charity contributions to organisations approved and supported by the Ministry of Social Development of Oman. Currently there are five different organisations benefitted under the umbrella of this portal: National Association for Cancer Awareness, Association of Early Intervention for Children with Special Needs, Oman Association for Disabled, Al Noor Association for the Blind and the Association of the welfare of the Handicapped.

The World Summit Award is instituted to recognise creativity in digital content and enhance the quality of electronic contents and widen its reach for the common benefit of the world society as a whole. The World Summit Award (WSA) as a global initiative, implements UN’s  directives on global efforts to support and develop high-quality e-Contents and innovative ICT applications. By selecting, presenting and promoting the best products from all over the world in that field, it makes a contribution to bridging the Digital Divide and narrowing the Content Gap.

The final award ceremony to honour excellence in e-Content creation in the Arab region will be held in Bahrain on the 25th  May 2009. All the regional winners including the ‘Online Donations Portal’ of Oman will be present at this grand finale event to receive their awards.

Online Donations Portal has been developed with the vision to promote charity for valuable social causes in the Sultanate of Oman, by providing an electronic gateway to facilitate payment of donations to charitable organisations supported by the Ministry of Social Development. This is inline with ITA’s mission to use technology to benefit the community including the less privileged people and the people with special needs. Having a single portal for charities helps to collect donations online and manage & track money received completely online; the portal offers services to citizens to support community using online payment from anywhere in Oman.

This portal supports humanitarian efforts for charity by serving as an electronic channel connecting donors and beneficiaries and utilising the e-payment gateway operated by the ITA to process the payments between the concerned banks. Winning the WSA Award for its social cause and its potential positive effect on the under-privileged members of the community is truly an international recognition.