Ruler of Dubai Sheikh Mohamed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum held a ceremony honouring the "Arab Hope Makers" initiative on Thursday that has raised donations worth EGP 360 million ( AED 88 million) for the Magdi Yacoub Global Heart Foundation in Aswan.

In a tweet posted on his official Twitter on Thursday, Sheikh Mohamed, who is also prime minister of the UAE, announced that the proceedings from the initiative ceremony would be allocated to support the construction of the new Magdi Yacoub Global Heart Foundation in Egypt to provide free-of-charge treatment.

He also honoured Magdi Yacoub at the ceremony.

The ceremony saw a lot of donations from businessmen and companies in the UAE to support the new medical centre.

The Arab Hope Makers initiative is an annual award that was launched in 2017 by Sheikh Mohamed that honours people for their humanitarian projects.

The foundation was created in 2008 by Yacoub with the mission of establishing an international medical centre that offers free state-of-the-art basic health services to the less privileged.