Abu Dhabi Awards opens nomination process for its 10th campaign

Abu Dhabi: The nomination process for the 10th edition of the Abu Dhabi Awards was officially opened on Tuesday, allowing residents to nominate individuals whom they feel deserve to be recognised for their selfless acts of giving back to the community.

Held under the patronage of His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, the Abu Dhabi Awards is regarded as the emirate’s highest civilian honour and is open to all regardless of nationality, age or place of residency.

The deadline for this year’s nominations closes on December 31 with the award ceremony to take place in the first quarter of 2020. Residents can nominate anyone they want with no limits on the number of nominations they can put forward. As per the organisers of the awards, nominees must have contributed positively in some way for the community in Abu Dhabi in order to be considered for the award.

“After nine editions, we are excited to be adopting a totally new approach for what will no doubt be a very unique 10th cycle of the Abu Dhabi Awards this year,” said Eisa Al Subousi, member of the Abu Dhabi Awards Organising Committee.

“With an engaging programme of events lined up to activate goodness across the emirate, we earnestly look forward to empowering citizens and residents with the opportunity to give back to their communities — something that couldn’t be more fitting of the spirit of the awards,” he added.

Farah Al Qaissieh, a previous winner of the award for her community work in supporting individuals with stuttering through her group Stutter UAE said the award had motivated her to double down on her activism.

“Ever since 2013 when I started the initiative there were ups and downs and times when I thought of giving up. After winning the award and realising that it wasn’t me who nominated myself or even my family but the community, it gave me no excuses to stop and motivated me to keep going.

“We were able to inspire and allow people to embrace their stutter rather than to be afraid of it thanks to the award,” she added.

Fatima Al Kaabi, who also won the award for being the youngest Emirati inventor in 2015, said the award had opened many doors for her.

“The award has opened so many doors for me, I’ve been able to visit more schools and to influence young people either through social media or in person. I’ve visited seven different countries across the world spreading the message of innovation ever since I won the award.

“The award has been a great push for me to do more for the community of Abu Dhabi and to spread that message across the world. I’m also glad the award gave the youth a chance to be a part of it and I’m very happy and proud to have been one of the youngest to have received the award,” the 17-year old added.