(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) By Suleiman Redha
DUBAI, May 14 (KUNA) -- Kuwaiti female volunteer Manal Al Musallam was named the "Hope Maker" of 2018 by UAE Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.
Al-Musallam was among the five winners of the prize who were able to reach the final stages from among more 80,000 participants in the contest, which aims to revive hope in the hearts of Arab youth by encourage them to volunteer for charitable and humanitarian action.
The winner was chosen by the jury of thousands of volunteers for helping thousands of Syrian refugees children in Lebanon and Jordan.
"After losing my daughter Dana in a tragic drowning accident in 2013, I founded the Dana Volunteer Team to help Syrian homeless and refugees, especially children through organizing relief campaigns to distribute aid and provide them with essential supplies," she told KUNA on the sidelines of the honoring ceremony. She pointed out that the team had so far distributed more than 330,000 food baskets; and provided direct support to 5,000 Syrian children; medical aid to more than 82,000 patients and financial aid to more than 52,000 families.
The awards were presented by Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid in an extraordinary ceremony held in Dubai Monday and broadcast to millions across the Arab world.
"We are investing in the business of hope because it is the most profitable endeavor for the future of our Arab world." "The Hope Makers Academy will be an inspirational human incubator. We will work to establish a culture of hope, institutionalize the act of hope and introduce global standards in our human institutions that create hope for peoples." He said:"The Hope Makers Academy will provide inspirational leadership in humanitarian work." "Hope is the only industry in the world where nobody can lose," he said.
He praised the initiatives of the Arab Hope Makers finalists, congratulating the owners and commended their efforts. He also expressed his pride in the thousands of individual and collective stories, projects, programs and initiatives that participated in Arab Hope Makers in 2017 and 2018. "We are proud of the 87,000 participants in Arab Hope Makers. They are truly stars in the skies of giving in our Arab world. It is our role to highlight this new generation of stars of hope," "We need to inspire millions of Arab youth to be positive energies in the service of their communities," he concluded.
The other four winners are: Fares Ali from Sudan, founder of the Food for Education initiative, that seeks to fight hunger by distributing sandwiches to schoolchildren in poor areas, as well as feeding homeless children; Nawal Mostafa from Egypt, who devoted herself to the cause of female prisoners and their children; Mahmoud Waheed from Egypt, the founder of the Together to Save a Human initiative that provides shelter, medical care and psychological support for homeless senior citizens to facilitate their reintegration into society; and Siham Jarjees from Iraq, who has implemented multiple humanitarian and relief initiatives to alleviate the suffering of refugees and displaced people in several refugee camps in Iraq through distributing aid, arranging orphan adoptions.
Each of the five winners got AED 5 million (approx. USD 1.36 million).
At the end of the largest humanitarian gathering in the Arab world, His Highness announced the establishment of the AED 50 million (about USD 13.6 million)-cost Hope Makers Academy to support building hope in the Arab world, provide humanitarian incubators for their projects, transfer international scientific expertise in the humanitarian field for their projects and provide executive and leadership training courses. (end) smr.ibi
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