‘Nothing is impossible’: Arab youth look to a future of possibility

Winners of the Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak International Award for Arab Youth inspire hundreds of pupils from the UAE.

Queen Noor of Jordan congratulates one of the winners of the Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak International Award for the Arab Youth at a conference in the capital yesterday, at which winners from this year and last spoke about their challenges and achievements. Delores Johnson / The NationalShow less

ABU DHABI // Hundreds of students have gathered to be inspired by Arab youth, including the designer of a robot that helps an injured girl to read and a special-needs pupil who works in photography.

Winners of the Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak International Award for the Arab Youth spoke of their impressive contributions to science, art, innovation, volunteering and the environment.

“Creation comes from thinking outside the box,” said Mostafa Al Harishawi, who won last year’s Arab Youth Globally Influential Award.

“We need to know where our creativity can take us. We need to have ambitions and develop analytical creativity as this will allow us to become innovative.”

Mostafa was one of eight winners from the past two years’ awards to outline the challenges and achievements in sustainable development to hundreds of students from schools and universities across the UAE.

The winners for this year were announced on Sunday night.

Queen Noor of Jordan was also at the conference in Abu Dhabi on Monday.

“Everything around us is like a resource,” said Mostafa, from Iraq. “We need to work hard to achieve as much as we can from knowledge and our capacities to excel.”

The key aspect of his work was precision, he said.

“I was very detailed in my studies,” he said. “If we want to achieve something, we need to be precise. This will make our task easier.”

Mostafa said young people had the energy, time, facilities and support to achieve anything to which they set their minds.

“We are the youth of the present and the future of tomorrow,” he said. “We are a blank paper and we can write whatever we want on it.

“Today, the Arab youth is proving that they can work as a team and achieve a lot.”

Mostafa has designed software being used by the Government’s educational institutions.

He took part in many environment and peace conferences in Egypt, Iraq and the US, and became the youngest speaker at a TEDx event.

Mostafa won the award for his good influence on young men and women in his country, and around the world.

Winners were between the ages of 12 and 18 and were chosen after submitting applications that were evaluated by a committee, then approved by Sheikha Fatima, chairwoman of the Family Development Foundation.

Sarah Al Lazikani won the Excellence Arab Youth award in sustainability last year.

“The high level of pollution in the water and from the energy and its repercussions on our society were challenging for me,” Sarah said.

“Schools also don’t focus on such matters. They only focus on teaching the curriculum.”

She took part in recycling programmes and environmental courses to fight for her cause.

“We have to make sure to avoid exhausting our resources to keep them for our future generations,” Sarah said.

“A lot of my friends said I couldn’t make it but I didn’t succumb to the discouragement. Instead, I used it to bounce back.”

Taha Al Anzi, from Iraq, won the award in special needs this year.

“He has Down syndrome but he still manages to do work in photography,” said Taha’s father. “He photographs water, people and flowers and loves it.”

Taha took up mobile photography at a young age and he has organised 13 exhibitions so far.

“He participated in 22 Arab exhibitions and we hope this will show other people with special needs that they can succeed despite their disability,” said his father.

“We pushed him to interact with society and he has proven that nothing is impossible because he is a child that has talent. All he needs is to develop it and someone to embrace him.”

Khalfan Al Missmari’s love of discovery drove him to build a robotic page-turner.

“My mother told me about this young girl who couldn’t turn the pages of a book because she had burnt her hands,” said Khalfan, a Grade 8 pupil. “So I told her we should create a robot to turn the pages for her.”

He said the continuous encouragement he received helped him to win this year’s award in science and innovation.

Dr Yasir Al Naqbi, the director of the Abu Dhabi Award for Excellence in Government and moderator of the panel, said the winners constituted the basics of a very strong future for the Arab nations.

“Despite their young age, they can achieve a lot at international levels,” Dr Al Naqbi said.