Abu Dhabi: Considered to be the emirate’s highest civilian honour, the Abu Dhabi Awards, this year in its eighth edition, recognised eight more individuals who have contributed selflessly to the betterment of people.
The Awards, which were established in 2005 by Emiri decree, are open to people of all ages and nationalities. Residents are invited to nominate those who have transformed lives for the better.
Since its inception, the now biennial prize has highlighted the efforts of 71 individuals, male and female, young and old, Emirati and expat, resident and non-resident, alive and deceased. These winners were feted at a ceremony and handed a prestigious trophy by Abu Dhabi rulers.
Past winners have been chosen for acts such as helping orphaned children find homes, running campaigns to protect camels from plastic bags and establishing hospitals that serve the community.
Gulf News profiles this year’s winners.
Spreading medical knowledge far and wide
Dr Aisha Al Memari, the first Emirati woman to specialise in emergency medicine established medical courses for all
A delay in diagnosing sepsis led to Dr Aisha Al Memari’s father being hospitalised for nearly six months, with the family shuttling back and forth each day to spend time with their sick member.
This seemingly routine incident made Dr Al Memari, then a medical student, realise that she wanted to save lives with her knowledge.
“I knew then that I wanted to work on the frontlines as this gave me one of the biggest opportunities to help people,” Dr Al Memari, 37, an Emirati physician and intensivist, told Gulf News.
She went on to become the first Emirati woman to specialise in emergency medicine and intensive care, and is today an emergency medicine consultant and critical, emergency medicine programme director at Mafraq Hospital.
Dr Al Memari took her passion further to develop a programme where normal people can learn the basics of medicine and care. In 2014, the Emirates Medical Association, which she heads in Abu Dhabi, introduced the Mini Medical School, a structured public education programme that provides health-care knowledge to attendees free of cost. This initiative that has trained nearly 500 people so far highlighted her worthiness for the prestigious Abu Dhabi Award.
“I used to do voluntary work as I felt I had to contribute to my country and its people. Now, with this award, I feel even more responsible to strive harder,” Dr Al Memari said.
“I have been to a lot of countries, studying in Bahrain and Canada, and I have never come across another nation that gives as many privileges to its people as the UAE. I honestly believe that if each of us spends even an hour a month to better society, we will make a real difference,” she added.
Dr Al Memari also travelled to Yemen to help injured Emirati soldiers. She is now pursuing a masters in organ donation and transplant management, in addition to managing her professional commitments as the co-founder of the Emirates Society of Emergency Medicine.
How does she manage to give so much of herself? It just takes effective time management and multi-tasking skills, says Dr Al Memari.
“I do downtime for a while every Friday, over the summer, and during the month of Ramadan. These times are just for my family,” she said.
“Modest efforts brought me the award”
Adnan Al Pachachi has played an instrumental role in the transformation of the UAE
At the age 92, Dr Adnan Al Pachachi lives each day at a time. But he has lived a good life, he says, and doesn’t see the need to plan further at his age.
“My wife passed away last year, and we had a good life together of 69 married years. My three grown daughters are now in Europe but I stay here in Abu Dhabi,” the veteran politician and diplomat told Gulf News.
The Emirati of Iraqi origin has been in the UAE a long time. More importantly, though, he played a pivotal role in its birth and development.
“I have been fortunate enough to see the UAE’s extraordinary transformation from a little village to a state that has a lot of weight internationally and economically,” he said.
In crisp, concise English, he explains how he first come to Abu Dhabi in 1969 as part of a visit to various Gulf states.
Soon, he was asked by Shaikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the UAE’s founding father, to create a government for a new state.
“The late Shaikh Zayed wanted to change from a system of tribalism to a system where roles and responsibilities were clearly defined,” Dr Al Pachachi recounts.
For his assistance in drawing up a law, Dr Al Pachachi was then asked to serve as a Minister of State. He also went on to shape the UAE’s foreign policy, and led a mission to have the UAE accepted into the United Nations.
Dr Al Pachachi remains humbled by the Abu Dhabi Award, saying his contribution to the UAE gives him pride and satisfaction but that is modest when compared to the efforts of Shaikh Zayed and President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan.
Asked how he has accomplished as much during his lifetime, including stints at the United Nations, the diplomat simply says that he “has been fortunate enough to be in the right place at the right time”.
“And as for my longevity, it is partly because of a little exercise, and partly because I chose the right parents,” Dr Al Pachachi says with a laugh.
Committed to understanding genetics
Dr Al Gazali established the first gene registry in the UAE
Training in Baghdad as a medical student in the 1970s, Lihadh Al Gazali was heartbroken to see many children with seemingly genetic conditions being left without accurate diagnoses or treatment.
“We had no answers when distressed parents asked for solutions because genetics was still an unfamiliar field. That’s when I decided to specialise in it, and promised myself that I will help families one day,” she told Gulf News.
Leaving Iraq in 1976, Dr Al Gazali moved to the United Kingdom to continue her education and training in paediatrics, and sub-specialise in clinical genetics. She then came to the UAE in 1990.
“After 14 years in the United Kingdom, I missed home and that sense of belonging, but the situation in Iraq meant that I couldn’t go back. That’s when I found my second home, the UAE,” recalls Dr Al Gazali, now professor and senior consultant in Clinical Genetics and Paediatrics at UAE University.
When she first arrived in Al Ain, the paediatrician had to start from scratch to build awareness about genetic disorders and the importance of studying them. She organised numerous public seminars and offered counselling, and found that people gradually started to accept and develop a better understanding of the role of inherited factors in causing diseases.
“This was a huge achievement for me, seeing people who completely rejected the idea of genetics coming to the clinics themselves and asking for counselling,” she said.
Dr Al Gazali eventually helped establish the first gene registry in the UAE, and even had a genetic disorder named after her. Nevertheless, she was full of gratitude and happiness at the honour of winning the Abu Dhabi Award.
“Having my 45 years of work acknowledged reaffirms that I have achieved a lot in genetics, and I hope such public recognition gives the next generation more motivation in achieving what they want,” she said.
“There are so many genetic diseases that haven’t yet been discovered and I want to give back to this amazing country some of the happiness and stability it has given me throughout my life,” Dr Al Gazali added.
How does she, a mother to two daughters and a son, balance her personal life and professional achievements? It has not been easy, says the pioneer.
“My mother is a very strong woman, and I owe my education and work to her support and understanding,” she says.
Helping people in conflict zones
Dr Al Daheri has selflessly led medical missions in war-torn zones without concern for her own safety
For almost two decades now Dr Aisha Al Daheri has made it her life’s work to provide aid for citizens of countries that have been affected by conflict.
Her selfless work led her to be honoured as one of the eight recipients of the Abu Dhabi Awards’ tenth edition.
“It was an overwhelming feeling of being honoured to have been announced as one of the recipients of the Abu Dhabi Awards, and at the same time I also felt that I didn’t do enough to deserve the award,” Dr Al Daheri, a 46-year-old doctor at Zayed Military Hospital, told Gulf News, humbled by her achievement.
As a humanitarian worker, Dr Al Daheri has visited countries such as Kosovo, Afghanistan, Eritrea, and Yemen, often putting her own safety before others to ensure that the people who needed the help the most, would get it.
Dr Al Daheri refers to the late Shaikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the founding father of the UAE, and the UAE’s role in providing humanitarian aid around the world as her motivations.
“I believe it stems from the UAE’s culture and the leadership of this country, the late Shaikh Zayed in particular. Shaikh Zayed put a lot of emphasis in providing humanitarian relief to countries that needed it, and the UAE in general has been well known in providing aid around the world and helping the less fortunate. I see myself as part of this and I believe it’s in our blood as Emiratis to help others,” she said.
Visiting countries affected by conflicts does pose its challenges, according to Dr Al Daheri, but she said that the challenges only motivated her to try harder to succeed.
“The first challenge we often face is to establish relations and trust with the local people, but it’s the type of challenge we want to solve because we are in a war zone and our main goal is to provide the people with security, shelter, food and medical supplies,” she said.
“Each case is also different, for example, when I was in Kosovo, the people I was helping were refugees, whereas when I was in Afghanistan, they were the local villagers who were living there already, so we work very hard to gain their trust. And when we do succeed and they open up to us, it’s such a great feeling and joy that cannot be described,” she added.
Most recently, Dr Al Daheri led the first female medical team in Eritrea, offering health care and humanitarian assistance to the Yemeni refugees and the local Eritrean people.
Despite the hard work she has already done, Dr Al Daheri says she feels her journey has been a short one so far, and looks forward to the future so she can do more.
“When I consider myself compared to the other people I have met during my missions, I feel that it’s been a short journey and that there are a lot of people in the world doing great things, and these people are also my role models and motivate me to want to do more,” she said.
“There are many more things I can do, and if I am needed, then I am more than happy to help in the future. In my view, I don’t believe there is an end for doing good things, so I always wish that I can do more,” she added.
Dr Al Daheri also encouraged the citizens and residents of Abu Dhabi to help with humanitarian causes in whatever way they can.
“We all live in a great country, so it’s just a matter of how someone can contribute and do good,” she said.
“When it comes to humanitarian work, a little can go a long way,” she added.
World’s foremost expert in Nabati poetry
Dr Gassan Al Hassan’s study of Nabati poetry shed light on lost Bedouin traditions and values
Dr Al Hassan is the only person in the world with a doctorate in Nabati poetry, a form of poetry unique to the Arabian Peninsula that is often the only record of historical events in the region.
The 71-year-old Jordanian is now an expert consultant for the Cultural Programmes and Heritage Festivals Committee at the Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority (TCA Abu Dhabi). But his journey in education started in Palestine’s West Bank, from where he went on to earn masters and doctorate degrees in Arabic language from Egypt’s Ain Al Shams University. Dr Al Hassan then specialised in folklore and Arabic poetry in the Gulf.
“I first came to Abu Dhabi in 1974, and I worked at the Ministry of Education and the Abu Dhabi Education Council for three years. I then became involved in the Ministry of Information and Culture, where I headed the media and publishing department,” Dr Al Hassan recalls. Soon after, the first form of the TCA Abu Dhabi was launched, and Dr Al Hassan moved to work there.
“Every human being needs a portion of knowledge regardless of what they do. Learning more about your country’s heritage and the art of Arabic poetry lets you appreciate your language the way previous generations did,” he said.
Having published numerous titles on academic folklore, the poetry expert explained how scientific awareness of the words and meanings in poems was one of the reasons he pursued Nabati poetry.
“The fundamental statement and expression in poetry is only one axis of Arabic literature. The consciousness of cultural memory is remarkably considered as an approach to classical rhythmic poems,” he said.
He also talked about the practice of poetry in the literature of the Arab world and how old and legendary poets affect the artistic expression and rhythms in the verses of a poem.
“Nabati poetry has its natural root within someone, which can’t be taught,” Dr Al Hassan said.
“I began collecting Nabati poetry and discovering the importance of semantic relations within the words, which shed light on how the Bedouin environment transformed into our modern day,” he added.
The Abu Dhabi Award winner said he was honoured to be part of the UAE’s legacy.
“There was no scientific research and study about the poems that existed so no one had really looked into the classification and segmentation of words before I did,” he explained.
Dr Al Hassan has always been a lover of poetry thought. With a poet for a father and a mother who loved folklore stories, culture and music, he grew up fascinated by the works of poets and it developed into a hobby of his until he made it his profession.
“I still remember the first time my dad was reciting a poem. He would randomly just recite or read as he walked through the house. I was really young, and my childhood was a combination of admiration and appreciation. I still hear his voice reciting the poem in my head, it’s so beautiful and vivid,” he recounted.
Discussing some of the most common subjects that Nabati poetry deals with, like chivalry, pride and wisdom, Dr Al Hassan elaborates on the definition of what is considered to be the richest form of poetry.
“Its form and content translates back to the historical value that descended from Arabian tribes. Late Shaikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan was a poet and he welcomed and appreciated poetry and helped in founding programmes and centres where people could recite and hear each other’s poems,” he said.
Always an inspiring figure
Dr Anwar Mohammad Gargash has helped establish the UAE’s electoral process and played a role in shaping its foreign policies and platforms
Whether as a UAE minister or as a professor of politics, Dr Anwar Mohammad Gargash has always been an imposing figure.
Currently UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Dr Gargash once served as a well-respected professor of political science at the UAE’s foremost research-focused university, UAE University.
In 2006, he played a critical role in fostering the UAE’s parliamentary structure based on the vision of President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan. This structure enabled citizens to exercise greater participation in the UAE’s government and development through taking up advisory roles in the Federal National Council, the representative body of the Emirati people. It also enabled the UAE to adopt its own electoral process and have its citizens’ voices heard.
Dr Gargash has also led efforts to combat human trafficking, and acted as a driving force behind the representation of UAE women in politics, parliament and government. In addition, he has lent his distinct perspective towards developing the UAE’s foreign policy platforms and policies.
Abu Dhabi Award organisers said that Dr Gargash “is an empowering force in modern-day UAE, investing in the development of young leaders as well as conceiving the frameworks for institutions critical to the advancement of the country”.
Abu Dhabi Awards: Posthumous prizes
Susan Hillyard, Abu Dhabi’s ‘first lady’ expat:
A British national, Susan Hillyard is often known as the First Lady of the UAE’s expat community. She arrived in Abu Dhabi in 1954 with her husband, an executive at an oil company, and over the next four years, noted aspects of Emirati life with much detail, curiosity and respect despite the harsh living conditions. Her memories of the time formed the contents of the engaging book, Before the Oil, which she wrote at the request of the UAE’s founding father, Shaikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan.
According to the organising committee of the Abu Dhabi Awards, Hillyard forged a close relationship with Emirati women in Abu Dhabi and was a frequent visitor to the women’s quarters at Qasr Al Hosn, where she was introduced to the shaikhas of the ruling Al Nahyan family. So, when work began on refurbishing the iconic fort to its original grandeur, Hillyard provided information to the architects who were undertaking the preservation processes. She will also be remembered for capturing and documenting the only documented photo of the late Shaikha Salama Bint Butti, the mother of the UAE’s founding father, Shaikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan.
Hillyard passed away in 2014 at the age of 87. Her eldest daughter, Deborah Henley, said her mother would have been immensely honoured at being bestowed the award.
“Nonetheless, she was very modest and would have found it hard to believe. She always said when anyone wanted to interview her, and absolutely genuinely, ‘Why me? I’ve done nothing’. She was always on her guard against mythologising,” Henley added.
Khalaf Al Mazroui, passionate promoter of Emirati heritage
The late Khalaf Al Mazroui passed away in a car crash in 2014. But his efforts to preserve and pass on Emirati culture and heritage cannot be forgotten.
He served as adviser of culture and heritage to His Highness Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Abu Dhabi Crown Prince and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces.
Al Mazroui had also previously been the chairman of Abu Dhabi’s state run media organisation, the Abu Dhabi Media Company, and director-general of the culture sector regulator, the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage (Adach, now part of the Abu Dhabi Tourism and Culture Authority).
He was born in Abu Dhabi’s Western Region, and took a keen interest in the environment, falconry and Arabic literature from a very young age.
In his capacity as director of Culture and Heritage, he launched an annual hunting and equestrian exhibition that is now the region’s most prominent event of its kind, the Abu Dhabi Hunting and Equestrian Exhibition. Under him, the Adach also started the Abu Dhabi Film Festival, the Shaikh Zayed Book Award, the Liwa Date Festival and the Kalima Translation project that makes foreign language literature available to Arabic readers.
Organisers at the Abu Dhabi Award said Al Mazroui was a ready source of information for events that sought to highlight and preserve the country’s historical traditions and customs.
“He was a driving force, working behind the scenes to encourage citizens of all ages, backgrounds and interests to participate in cultural events and festivals in Abu Dhabi. Although he has passed away, he has ensured through the platforms he created that the UAE’s national identity will live on through future generations,” they announced.
