Dubai: People and centres that exerted outstanding efforts to improve the lives of those with special needs were honoured on Thursday at the Princess Haya Award for Special Education (PHASE).
PHASE was established by Princess Haya Bint Al Hussain, wife of His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, The award aims to honour excellence in special needs practices to enhance the overall services and performances in the area of special needs provision, encourage creativity and excellence as well as acknowledge the role of special needs educators, therapists, management, caregivers and parents.
PHASE, which is open to special need centres and educators in all Arab countries, saw 23 winners honoured in its fifth cycle.
The winners included special needs educator, Raqaya Nasser Al Saeedi -Abu Dhabi Centre, movement therapist Olga Tretyakova - Dubai Centre for Special Needs, occupational therapist Maria Quirke -Stepping Stones Centre for Autistic Spectrum Disorder and Educational Psychologist Marwa Hesham Abdul Fattah - Awladouna Centre, to name a few.
Hussain Ebrahim Al Hammadi, Minister of Education, emphasised the significant impact of the award on the special education sector and underlined its importance in promoting excellence in the workplace among the different categories of special education employees.
“The attention of the United Arab Emirates towards people with disabilities is not only out of its commitment to international conventions, but also the basis of the values, customs and traditions and heritage of the community of the UAE,” he said.
Al Hammadi also said the UAE was one of the first countries to ratify a comprehensive and integrated law, which aims to protect the dignity and promote the rights of the disabled, issued by President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan under federal decree No 116 for 2009.
