It started with one painting

Charles Donald came to Dubai in 1989 and has worked here as an engineer ever since; Intentional is his company. A few years ago a friend he had worked with in India posted a painting on Facebook by his son, Abheek, who is autistic and an artist. Charles asked to buy it. Nobody had bought one of Abheek’s paintings before.

He kept following the work. In December 2025 the news came that Abheek had an exhibition in Bangalore, and then that every painting in it had sold. Abheek was about to leave school at nineteen, so Charles suggested an exhibition in Dubai later in the year. That was the whole plan: one show of one person of determination’s paintings.

Then he found the other artists in Dubai, and the groups behind them — around thirty-five, supporting People of Determination through art, dance, fashion and sport. Some knew each other. Many did not. Each was raising its own money and running its own events. The gap was not a shortage of people doing the work; it was that nobody had brought them together in one place.

So one exhibition became a celebration of life, open to anyone who has faced a challenge: cancer survivors, people living with chronic illness, older people, and the families around them. And not one event but the start of a movement.

Charles tells it himself in the first episode of the podcast.