Clifford Chance (CC) is running an initiative to help 100,000 people across the world through community and pro bono work. 

One example of the work undertaken by Middle East-based staff was a drive to raise AED100,000 (£18,000) to pay for a school bus for the Special Needs Family Centre in Dubai. The cheque was delivered to the centre in December. The bus will allow more children to attend the school and facilitate larger field trips. 

Staff at CC's Middle East offices formed a fundraising committee and arranged a series of events to raise the cash. The fundraising drive was just one of several initiatives undertaken by the firm's regional branches as part of a co-ordinated strategy by the firm to boost access to justice through pro bono work; access to finance through microfinance initiatives; and access to education. 

Other examples of the firm's CSR activities in the Middle East include the funding of the first toll-free hotline for victims of female genital mutilation (FGM) in Iraq. The hotline aims to provide social, psychological, medical and sexual advice to FGM-affected women. 

In May 2012 a team of 13 Clifford Chance employees from the Doha, Abu Dhabi and Dubai offices went to a remote village in Jordan and helped finance and build a house for a family with a charity called Habitat for Humanity. The Middle East offices also successfully applied for CC's charity, the Clifford Chance Foundation, to provide funding for a children's home in northern India that supports abandoned, destitute and abused children.