Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser presents QF’s Akhlaquna and Akhlaquna Junior Awards

Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, Chairperson of Qatar Foundation, crowned the winners of the third cycle of the Akhlaquna Award and the inaugural Akhlaquna Junior Award, tonight at a special Akhlaquna Day ceremony in Education City.

The Akhlaquna Award went to the student-led initiative “Yes, I Can,” developed by Noora Hassen AL-Maslamani, Abdullah Ahmed Al-Sada, Fahad Saeed Al-Hamad, Roqayya Khan Khan, Ayub Mohammed Janahi, Ibrahim Aly El Feky, Abdullah Mohamed Al-Ishaq, Shahed Salem Al-Dosari, Nada Juma Aldos, and Ibrahim Yousef Dorzadeh, which aims to highlight the active role and contribution of people with disabilities. The team has organized numerous campaigns – including With Thanks, which highlighted the role of sanitary workers, and Our Land, which is designed to help protect Qatar’s environment.

“I would like to thank Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser for this valuable award,” said Al-Hamad. “It has great meaning for us, and we’ve participated to show our role and pay something back to our country.”

Al-Sada said: “I feel very proud to have met Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser. It is a great honor to win this award, and I hope we can live up to the responsibility.”

Other projects shortlisted for the Akhlaquna award and also recognized at the ceremony were Life Engineers, developed by Hamad Abdulla Aljumaily to nurture future leaders aged from 3-18 years who embody moral values, through consultations, workshops, travel opportunities, and summer programs; and Sign Language Translator, created by Noora Talib Almarri and Khalood Zaid Almarri, an application that helps sign language users communicate their needs by translating their hand movements through a glove equipped with motion sensors.

The winners were decided by public voting and an expert jury, comprising Dr. Jassim Sultan, Director of Wijdan Cultural Center; Dr. Emad El-Din Shahin, Dean of the College of Islamic Studies at Hamad Bin Khalifa University, a QF member; and Professor Mabrouk Zeid Elkheir, Director of the National Center for Research in Islamic Sciences and Civilization, Algeria.

Meanwhile, the Akhlaquna Junior winners for the Grades 1-3 category were Fatima Faisal Al-Thani of Qatar Academy Al Wakra, Hemyen Hamad Al-Kuwari of Athaayen Girls Primary School, and Faisal Abdalla Al-Shahwani of Ali bin Abdullah Model School.

In the category for students in Grades 4-6, Fahad Masoud Nabina of Qatar Academy Al Wakra, Abdulla Rafea Al-Ahbabi of Ali bin Abdullah Model School, and AlHanouf Hassan AlEmadi of Qatar Academy Doha were named the winners, with the awards in the Grades 7-9 category going to Fatima Saad Mohammed Almohannadi of Qatar Academy Al Khor, Mariam Ameen Abdalaa Mohamed Abdalaa Ameen of Moza bint Mohammed Preparatory School, and Bhagath Krishnan of Birla Public School.

Giving the keynote speech at the Akhlaquna Day ceremony, with the audience for the event watching virtually and a number of stakeholders in attendance, Dr. Mohammed Nowaimi Al Hajri, Assistant Professor of International Relations, Qatar University, said: “The most important task in our world today is to raise children who have trust and honesty.

“We also must be aware of the importance of the pivotal role of families and societies in bringing up our youth in an environment that is built on honesty and faithfulness, through our words and actions, so that this is reflected in the souls of our children. This responsibility is embodied in Akhlaquna and Akhlaquna Junior, with the goal of strengthening the role of society in cultivating honesty as a way of life for our youth.

“I sincerely hope that our youth take this opportunity to explore these concepts, enhancing honesty in themselves first as a step toward demonstrating it with others. The respect and dignity of any person lies in their sincerity and honesty, and having a genuine awareness of what honesty means and how it is connected to trust and integrity in our words and actions, showing us a pathway that we can follow throughout our lives.”

The Akhlaquna Award was established by Qatar Foundation (QF) in 2017 to recognize members of Qatar’s community who demonstrate social awareness, compassion, and thoughtfulness toward others, improve society through the example they set, and become leaders and agents of change. The award aims to emphasize the importance of the four values of mercy, honesty, generosity, and tolerance. This year, QF also launched Akhlaquna Junior, designed to honor school students who uphold the morals and values that Akhlaquna seeks to promote and cultivate.