Student turning their design into a prototype in a fabrication lab
The top 20 students waiting for the awards announcement
The top 3 winners for Tatawwar 2022
Tatawwar brought by HSBC in partnership with Potential.com is supporting the next generation of social innovators
The Tatawwar programme reaches students directly and focuses on helping them build their own support systems to achieve their goals, and develop their employability and financial skills to thrive.”
DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES, March 17, 2022 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Tatawwar: Building Tomorrow’s Minds, from HSBC and Potential.com, announced the winners of the 2021 / 2022 programme rollout at a recently live-streamed final awards event. — Sabrin Rahman, MD at HSBC
Over 5,300 students aged 15-18 years from across the Middle East and North Africa region, took charge of their learning and engaged in this year’s programme. After months of blended learning, innovation design and prototyping, the amazing 20 finalists competed for this year’s top three spots.
The top three winners received USD 9,500 in cash prizes. They will also be supported to crowdfund their projects and develop them further.
• First prize was awarded to Lujain Ahmed Mustafa Romouzy from Egypt for her “Microplastic water filter” removing microplastics from water filtration systems.
• Second prize was awarded to Zeinab Ali Mirza from Bahrain for her “Recycling of Plastic Waste to Produce building materials”.
• Third prize went to Abdulla Adel Almehaiza also from Bahrain for his “Solar Filter” supplying millions of people with clean drinking water while saving our environment.
The judges also recognised 2 other finalists, Ismail Amr Gamal from Egypt with a special award for for youth empowering platform to donate and give back to the community, and Ahmad Majzoub from Qatar with an outstanding presentation award.
Shadi Banna, CEO of Potential.com said “I would like to thank everyone that has supported the programme including over 15,000 students that have participated to date, for taking charge of their learning and future. I’d also like to thank the various stakeholders, including schools, teachers, parents, volunteers, FabLabs, government bodies and judges that have supported us and the students. Empowerment thrives, when the various stakeholders work together as is happening in Tatawwar Building Tomorrow’s Minds. And finally, I would like to thank HSBC for their support and commitment to this programme and others as their genuine commitment to social impact and sustainable development is what we need now more than ever.”
Five distinguished judges listened to 3-minute pitches from the 20 talented finalists and reviewed their prototypes and business models. The judges representing the Ministry of Youth and Sport Affairs in Bahrain, Ministry of Education and Higher Education in Qatar, Zayed University in the UAE, The British University in Dubai and C3, Company Creating Change, provided diverse perspectives when evaluating the finalists’ projects.
Sabrin Rahman, Managing Director and Head of Sustainability for Europe and the Middle East at HSBC, said: “The Tatawwar programme reaches students directly and focuses on helping them build their own support systems to achieve their goals, which aligns well with HSBC’s longstanding commitment to support the communities in which we operate by helping people develop the employability and financial skills they need to thrive. It is exactly what this programme achieves.”
Over the past four years, more than 15,000 students have participated in the programme and this year’s edition saw a total of 5,320 students from over 1,600 schools across the Middle East and North Africa region. Having an online and mobile-first strategy, helps Tatawwar reach remote regions and makes it accessible to all the students.
The Tatawwar team hosted live and online prototyping workshops for the shortlisted 240 students in each of the programme’s countries, and held 17 online semifinals sessions before choosing the top 20.
The top 20 who competed in the finals included 3 students from Algeria, 3 from Bahrain, 5 from Egypt, 2 from Kuwait, 2 from Oman, 2 from Qatar, and 3 from the UAE. Over the past weeks, they went through an acceleration programme that included twice-weekly webinars to help project owners fine tune their pitching skills, and learn key business skills including financial projections, raising funding, sustainability trends and marketing.
Each webinar brought together international experts on each of these topics to help the students. In addition, each of the top 20 students were provided with four one-on-one coaching sessions and will get a one-year free membership to their local FabLabs, where they can continue to develop their prototypes.
Tatawwar, meaning “to develop” in Arabic, empowers students to learn and apply core future skills in the areas of innovative design thinking, financial literacy, critical thinking, and social entrepreneurship. Tatawwar helps them take challenges they are facing in their communities, and turn them into innovation opportunities.
It is an interactive online and face-to-face programme that brings together students aged 15 to 18, schools, parents, and the business community to innovate for a sustainable future by addressing the three United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs):
• Health and Well-being
• Clean Water and Sanitation
• Climate Action
Several of the Tatawwar previous winners have progressed with their projects. One of the winners of the first edition, Samah Abdulla from Egypt, has already raised capital through crowdfunding. She launched her Water Money Saver (WMS) mobile application in both English and Arabic language in addition to being a legally registered startup. Another previous winner, Rishabh Java from the United Arab Emirates, has grown his start-up ‘Broccoli Brains’, a gamified treatment of ADHD, to a team of 8. Omaima Mosharaf, a previous Tatawwar finalist from Bahrain, is now an eighteen old social entrepreneur and the Chief Executive Officer at YouthWave MENA and sits on the youth advisory board at Savii - the first neobank for teens in the GCC.
Tatawwar has been recognised internationally, winning six prestigious awards in 2021 and 2022. Two gold awards at Gulf Sustainability Awards, for Best Learning and Education Programme and Best Community Development. A gold award for most effective social impact and silver for the team of the year at the International Business Excellence awards, silver award at QS-Wharton Reimagine Education Awards, a bronze award at the International CSR Excellence Awards, and was shortlisted in Global Good Awards for Educational Excellence and Special Judges Award for Innovation categories.
Stay tunned for the the next chapter!
The finals and highlights from this year’s programme can be watched on the programme’s web page www.tatawwar.com.
Daria German
Potential.com
+971 52 903 3191
email us here
Tatawwar Finals
