The Education Above All’s Al Fakhoora programme and Dutch NGO, SPARK, celebrated the milestone of granting 10,000 scholarship to displaced youth recently. During the event held on UN World Refugee Day, H H Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, Chairperson of Education Above All and UN Sustainable Development Goals Advocate, called on universities, learning centres and tech companies to join in the collective responsibility of ensuring graduates of these programme are equipped to find meaningful employment and connect with the virtual and traditional job market to empower them to contribute to their communities.
Education Above All (EAA) is a foundation established in 2012 by H H Sheikha Moza, which is dedicated to contribute to human, social and economic development through the provision of quality education, particularly for those affected by poverty, conflict and disaster.
EAA’s Al Fakhoora programme was established in 2009 as a response to the conflict in Gaza that destroyed numerous schools and universities and it launched several initiatives ranging from emergency medical assistance, rebuilding institutes of higher education damaged in the war and establishing vocation programmes for students with disabilities and awarding scholarships for marginalised youth.
Al Fakhoora’s Dynamic Futures Gaza Programme offers access to higher education for marginalised youth through a scholarship, student affairs, civic leadership and economic empowerment programmes. In 2016 the programme, alongside its strategic partner SPARK, took the initial step towards replicating the Dynamic Futures Gaza approach, scaling it up to a global level, reaching out to more refugees, who have been deprived of higher education for none of their fault.
The programme, after several years of relentless pursuit of providing educational opportunity for the marginalised, is celebrating the milestone of 10,000 scholarships, bringing a new shine of hope to the eyes of numerous youth and giving added strength to their voice.
For almost a decade, EAA Foundation has been bringing hope to thousands of children and youth across the world by implementing a myriad of programmes through different initiatives such as Al Fakhoora, Educate A Child and Reach Out to Asia etc. Hundreds of communities in different parts of the world have seen their youth beaming with confidence and securing employment after getting educated in a proper way.
EAA’s efforts in education is giving a fillip to the UN Sustainable Development Goals, which was launched in September 2015, but to achieve the targeted goals, it demands a lot more efforts from the international community, especially the rich nations.
