Dubai knowledge award winners cultivate generation of leaders
Winners of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Knowledge Award, honoured yesterday, work in varied fields but share the same goal – building the future.
The award recognises contributions to the production and promotion of knowledge around the world.
Saudi Arabia’s Misk Foundation, which was among the winners, specialises in developing educational institutions and supporting scientific research.
“Knowledge is vital in this world,” said Ohoud Alarfaj, project manager at the foundation. “We’ve done a lot of initiatives to encourage the youth in Saudi and globally in education, media, culture and technology.
“We have scholarships for Saudi and international youth with Cisco, Bloomberg and many high-level companies and educational institutes to provide scholarships and high-quality education for the new generation.”
Youth comprise more than half the Saudi population. “We know the future is the youth as they will be the leaders. So we have to focus on how to empower them and help them to gain the knowledge and skills they will need to lead to more sustainable development.”
Another winner was Wendy Kopp, chief executive of Teach for All, whose work addresses educational inequality and grooms future leaders.
“It’s a very deep-rooted challenge and we believe the only way to address it is cultivating collective leadership for change at every level,” Ms Kopp said. “Teach for All is a network of individual organisations in 46 countries brought together by a shared commitment to ensure all children fulfil their potential.
“Each of these are galvanising the rising generation of promising future leaders to channel their energy into working with their countries’ most marginalised kids.”
Volunteers in the Teach For all programme are asked to give two years to teaching.
Ms Kopp said the aim was to “cultivate leaders who have the experience of teaching and will go on and exert real leadership for change”.