Dubai radio competition winner donates Dh20,000 prize to Nepal

The night before Debbie Smith won Dh20,000 in the Secret Sound competition on the radio channel Dubai 92 on Monday, April 28, she was trying to help a group of children in rural Nepal who had been affected by the massive earthquake that hit the country on Saturday, April 25.

Smith, with 14 other Dubai-based residents, had spent time in Nepal supporting education project of the not-for-profit organisation Children of the Mountain earlier this year and was deeply affected by the images of destruction emerging from there. So when 92 Breakfast presenter Catboy asked her what she’d do with the prize money if she correctly identified the secret sound they had played that day, she didn’t need any time to think.

“With all the things that have gone on [in Nepal] and all the devastation over there, this will go straight to Nepal,” said the mother of four, who correctly identified the sound as an umbrella being popped open.

Catboy says Smith’s response “caught us all on the back-foot”, adding that the prize money had been carried forward from the past few days of failed attempts from listeners trying to identify the sound. “When Debbie said the answer, and then said she would give all the money away, I had a split second to try to gather myself and, as you could probably hear on air, I didn’t manage it too well.”

Her response got a big cheer from the radio crew and they were inundated with calls and messages from listeners who were overwhelmed by her generosity.

Original article by Afshan Ahmed

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Dubai radio competition winner donates Dh20,000 prize to Nepal