Dubai: Two Saudi women received the region-wide ‘Creativity for Cause’ award at the Jumeriah Beach Hotel on Monday, after their inspirational ideas were chosen from more than 1,000 submissions by women across the GCC.
The campaign, which is organised by Mondelez International, invites women to pursue their ambition and be catalysts of progress by conceiving simple ideas that can have a strong impact on bettering the community.
The award’s seventh edition honoured Manar Al Omayri, a Saudi national, in the ‘GCC Winner’ category with close to Dh67,000, to carry out her idea to create an online library for Arabic audio books, after she received a total of 3,652 votes in the competition.
Saudi Soraya Darwish, a faculty member from Dar Al Hekma University in Saudi Arabia, took home the award in the ‘University’ category for her idea of empowering women in her country by opening up job opportunities for them. She was awarded close to Dh25,300 for her idea and received a total of 178 votes.
Submissions were examined by four women — Sarah Al Beloushi, Emirati photography enthusiast and travel and lifestyle blogger; Shahd Thani, an Emirati writer; Hadeel Al Hussain, Saudi entrepreneur, visual artist, and fashion designer; and Esra Al Hamal, Saudi interior designer and travel blogger.
“The aim of my project is to create an open platform that sells Arabic audio book in order to increase reading in the Arab World,” said award-winner Al Omayri.
She explained that with Arab youth’s constant engagement in technology, they are often distracted, and have neglected the culture of reading.
“These audio books will make it easy for everyone to listen while they’re driving in their car, exercising in the gym, and even on their desk at work,” added Al Omayri.
Fellow winner Darwish said her idea started with the aim of empowering women by introducing them to art, culture, and wellness by targeting community centres around Jeddah.
When the accessibility and implementation process proved to be a challenge, Darwish decided to target women in public parks, a location where many women spend their free time over the weekend. “We started holding arts and crafts activities at the park, and teaching the women new skills so that they can eventually perfect an activity and become creative leaders,” said Darwish.
She pointed out that she aims to work with the government to ensure their full support, gradually spread the resources to women in other cities. “When you make a mother a creative leader, her children, too, will become creative leaders,” said Darwish.
