Manama: Jasour – News Desk
The winners of the third edition of Her Highness Sheikha Hessa bint Salman Al Khalifa’s Award for Voluntary Youth Work emphasized the importance of this distinctive award in developing their projects, enhancing their impact, and improving their performance and outcomes. They appreciated the support given to voluntary youth initiatives and projects aimed at developing and enhancing the stability of Bahraini society.
Zainab Saeed Al-Jamri, who won first place in the “Individual Projects” category, expressed her happiness with winning this award. She praised the Supreme Council for Women for adopting this important national award, which fosters positive competition among Bahraini youth and motivates them to participate actively in the development and prosperity of their community.
Al-Jamri explained that her winning project, “Lisan Arabi,” aims to provide advanced and specialized Arabic language education for non-native speakers. She has an ambitious vision to expand the project’s reach to benefit a broader range of learners, focusing on offering innovative educational programs that rely on the latest smart learning technologies. She continued: “I also aim to expand the project’s scope to include new countries and regions, especially in communities with increasing numbers of non-Arabic speakers.
This helps enhance their understanding and mastery of the Arabic language, in addition to developing educational applications based on artificial intelligence and data analysis to ensure specialized content that meets the needs of each learner. This contributes to improving learning effectiveness, increasing interaction, and enhancing the cultural aspect by introducing educational programs that integrate the language with Arab customs and traditions, offering workshops and training courses on Arabic arts and literature, allowing learners to gain a deeper understanding of the language and its cultural context.”
She also aims to expand remote learning to include augmented and virtual reality technologies, providing learners with an interactive and realistic experience that enhances their linguistic and social skills in various environments. Additionally, she plans to organize cultural and community events in collaboration with local institutions to enable learners to engage directly with Bahraini society and closely learn about its values and principles, thus promoting a culture of peace and tolerance in diverse educational settings.
Hanan Abdullah Hassan, who won second place in the same category, expressed her deep gratitude and appreciation for the continuous efforts of the Supreme Council for Women in supporting youth and their pioneering projects. She expressed pride and honor in winning the award and praised its significant role in promoting and spreading the culture of volunteer work among young people, highlighting its moral value as a national and humanitarian duty.
She explained that her award-winning project, “Development of Workforce in the Field of Special Needs,” aims to develop the skills of Bahrainis and increase their employability in the field of special needs, in addition to providing an opportunity for them to earn additional income. The project also aims to improve the quality of life, both psychologically and physically, for individuals with special needs and enhance the services provided to them.
The project includes several stages, such as training workers in the field of special needs, like sports teachers in schools, physical education students at the University of Bahrain, trainers of the Bahraini Federation for Special Needs, trainers of private gyms, and workers in various special needs centers. An American academy with international recognition has been coordinated with to conduct the training courses included in the project.
She added, “The project provides practical training for some of the graduates from the training stage, where they have the opportunity to accompany athletes with special needs in external championships. The program also offers workshops for individuals with special needs in various skills such as public speaking, leadership, different life skills, and preparing them for the job market, in addition to awareness workshops and conferences.”
The project provided 278 workers in the field of special needs with international professional certificates and offered training opportunities in the federation, including financial rewards for some of the project’s graduates.
The organizers of the “Hypo Youth Program” project, which won first place in the “Group Projects” category, Faisal Issa Al-Khayat, Ahmed Issam Al-Janahi, Dana Abdullah Al-Buarki, and Khalid Salman Al-Sheikh, praised the role of Her Highness Sheikha Hessa bint Salman Al Khalifa’s Award for Voluntary Youth Work in encouraging youth to innovate and lead development projects that serve the nation by providing solutions to problems in various sectors, thereby increasing productivity and improving the services provided to the community.
They added that “Hypo Youth” is a prominent leadership program launched for the first time in 2019 within the Youth City 2030 programs and has become known for developing young leaders in various fields. They confirmed that it aims to discover, highlight, and develop young leadership talents and provide them with the necessary tools for making change. It also seeks to equip youth with the skills needed for their future, enable them to explore their talents and abilities, and strengthen their role as consultants offering innovative advisory ideas.
They pointed out that the main goal of “Hypo Youth” is to introduce Bahraini youth to national role models who inspired them and contributed to the development of Bahrain through the main principle of “Love of Challenge and Passion for Achievement.” It also serves as an opportunity for youth to meet influential leadership figures in Bahrain, allowing them to discuss topics within their areas of interest and develop creative ideas that are later presented to decision-makers.
Additionally, the organizers of the “Keys Program” project, which won second place in the same category, Yaqub Yousif Al-Najem, Amjad Khalid Al-Ansari, Saleh Mohammed Al-Mahza, Wud Noah Abdulghaffar, Noura Ibrahim Najem, Ahmed Mohammed Al-Awadi, and Sawsan Abdul Rahim Ali, emphasized the importance of this award in paving the way for innovative youth to launch at the national and global levels, introducing their projects to a broader audience and developing them to place Bahrain among the leading countries in the field of youth and volunteer innovation.
They explained that their project aims to prepare young people aged 16 to 19 to choose the appropriate university specialization based on their inclinations and talents and prepare them comprehensively for entering the job market through specialized events and workshops that provide them with all the necessary skills and knowledge. The program is divided into four weeks: “Life Skills Week,” “University Life Week,” “Family and Volunteer Work Week,” and “Final Projects Week,” during which participants apply what they have learned during the program, and sponsors interested in adopting the winning projects are invited.
Members of the “Inspiring Montessori” volunteer project team, which won the award in the “Outstanding
