Kuwaiti IT expert to mentor European Youth Award

KUWAIT: European Youth Award (EYA) chose Kuwaiti IT expert Manar Al-Hashash as member of its mentoring team for the Wings of Success Initiative for the second time in a row. EYA chose top European experts to mentor the initiative, Hashash told KUNA yesterday, adding that the program, currently held in the Austrian city of Graz, includes guidance seminars, presentations of qualifying projects and workshops on IT and communication. The EYA mentorship program offers every winning project a yearlong business experience under a mentor’s wing, Hashash also noted.

Meanwhile, head of the award said that Hashash was chosen due to her experience in the field and her efforts in supporting creative youth. She said that the Kuwaiti expert was also chosen to hold a seminar on the future of the electronic field in front of top European experts, aiming to influence European youth engaged in IT.

Hashash is the Secretary General of Kuwait E-Award; a member in the Word Summit Award WSA board of directors and in HighLevel Panel of Advisers of Gaid - United Nations. Since 1999, she has been involved in media and public work in many ways to achieve that goal. She prepares and presents the weekly IT program ‘Compunet World’ on Kuwait TV as well as preparing and presenting another weekly IT program on KTV2 in English called “Zero Ones”.

In 2004, Al-Hashash launched and Managed a Local e-Content Annual Contest under the name of “Ghiras electro Contest” which aims at youths in Kuwait (14-22yrs) competing for Best website design, Best Presentation, Best Graphic design and Best mobile e-greeting card, all focus on local content.

She also has rich experience in the press media publishing for IT, as she wrote a weekly IT page for the an official daily newspaper in Kuwait from 2000 till 2005, where she concluded that experience by launching the IT magazine “Dot” of which she was owner and Chief Editor. As a student Manar was awarded an IEEE for her outstanding Internet and eCommerce projects in 2000. The European Youth Award (EYA) is a pan-European contest to motivate young people to produce socially-valuable digital projects that address the goals defined by the Council of Europe and Europe 2020.