Dubai: Emirates Post Group celebrated World Post Day on Thursday in a special function where a number of UAE school students were awarded for an international letter-writing competition.
Celebrating the 140th anniversary of the Universal Postal Union (UPU), which marks World Post Day, Emirates Post Group hosted the event at their head office and awarded the top winners of the annual UPU letter-writing competition with certificates and cash prizes.
Speaking at the event, Ibrahim Bin Karam, Chief Commercial Officer at Emirates Post Group said: “We are here to celebrate the founding of the UPU, which has played a key role in the development and modernization of postal services in the world, and to also award the best letter-writers for this year.
"In coordination with the UAE Ministry of Education and Emirates Writers Union, we organised this event to award top winners who participated in this worldwide competition and wrote letters under this year’s theme: ‘How music can touch lives’.”
Creative challenge
Bin Karam added that participating in the UPU competition is part of the strategy and role of Emirates Post Group and the UAE to encourage its students to be part of such creative challenges.
“We always take attempt to enhance the creativity of students and push them to be leaders in everything they do. Students of the UAE are already playing a role worldwide when it comes to education and creativity,” he said.
Every year a number of students from different schools worldwide participate in the international letter-writing competition where they are asked to work under a certain theme decided by the UPU. Top winners from each country then send their letters to a UPU committee for a chance to compete in the final competition.
This year, shortlisted entries at the UAE level were sent for the international leg, where the UPU selected top three winners globally.
First place winner of the best Arabic written letter in the UAE this year was Mariam Ibrahim, 13, a student from Fujairah who wrote a letter addressing a friend. In her letter, she tells her friend about the beauty of music and its ability to affect lives.
Mariam, who was asked to read her letter to the audience on Thursday, told Gulf News that she did not expect her letter to be picked over everybody else’s entries.
“When I heard about the competition, I liked the idea behind it and I was excited about taking part in it since I will be representing my country, the UAE. I was confident that my letter would be chosen, but I never expected to win first place,” Mariam said.
