ABU DHABI // People who have made a real difference to their community will be honoured at the seventh Abu Dhabi Awards on January 30.
The prizes recognise those who have contributed in building a greater sense of social welfare in the emirate, regardless of their age, nationality or gender.
The recipients will be chosen by a judging process that looks at the merits and achievements of the nominees, not just on the number of votes cast for a particular individual.
“The nominations we received for the Abu Dhabi Awards this year were from all parts of society and there were some truly incredible stories about people contributing to the emirate,” a spokesman for the organising committee said.
“In this 2013 Abu Dhabi Awards campaign, almost 30,000 nominations were made. A record was set in the form of 117 different nationalities taking part and there were also record numbers of young people and women participating in the nomination process,” he said.
“Awareness and understanding of the awards increases, year-on-year, illustrated by the number and quality of nominations received.”
The ceremony will be presided over by Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces.
South African Cameron Oliver won an Abu Dhabi Award in 2008 when he was just 12 years old for his work to protect camels being injured by litter left in the desert.
“When I won it was like an Oscar for me,” he said.
“It has helped me a lot with recognition. People have seen what I have accomplished and what my campaign is about and people try to help me out. Ever since I won people started asking me about it and it gives you a motivation to keep going with your drive.
“What I am happy with is the standard hasn’t changed. It is always very high. Back then it was absolutely amazing seeing the sorts of people winning and when I see the winners now it is still the same, or improving.”
Cameron, now a keen swimmer with ambitions to enter the 2016 Olympics, still keeps up his work to make the environment safer for camels in the UAE.
“We are planning on doing a campaign in the desert in the next few months before it gets too hot and we’ve had a few offers from schools to help out,” he said.
Other past recipients include Dr Maha Barakat, the director general of the Health Authority Abu Dhabi, for her work to improve health care for everyone across the emirate.
As one of the youngest recipients, 10-year-old Abdul Muqeet from India was honoured in 2011 for his campaign to reduce the number of plastic bags used in Abu Dhabi.
Abdul’s initiative saw recycled paper bags distributed throughout the community in a move to improve the local environment.
The late Alain Saint-Hilaire was also given a reward for documenting the history of Abu Dhabi, through photography, since 1969.
The event will be broadcast live on the Abu Dhabi Al Emarat television channel from 7pm on January 30.
Re-runs of the latest awards ceremony will be broadcast on Abu Dhabi Al Oula and Abu Dhabi Al Emarat on Friday January 31 and again by Al Oula the following day.
ksinclair@thenational.ae
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Directed by: Joseph Kosinski
Starring: Tom Cruise, Val Kilmer, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Miles Teller, Glen Powell, Ed Harris
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Qyubic
Started: October 2023
Founder: Namrata Raina
Based: Dubai
Sector: E-commerce
Current number of staff: 10
Investment stage: Pre-seed
Initial investment: Undisclosed
Electoral College Victory
Trump has so far secured 295 Electoral College votes, according to the Associated Press, exceeding the 270 needed to win. Only Nevada and Arizona remain to be called, and both swing states are leaning Republican. Trump swept all five remaining swing states, North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, sealing his path to victory and giving him a strong mandate.
Popular Vote Tally
The count is ongoing, but Trump currently leads with nearly 51 per cent of the popular vote to Harris’s 47.6 per cent. Trump has over 72.2 million votes, while Harris trails with approximately 67.4 million.
Cricket World Cup League 2
UAE squad
Rahul Chopra (captain), Aayan Afzal Khan, Ali Naseer, Aryansh Sharma, Basil Hameed, Dhruv Parashar, Junaid Siddique, Muhammad Farooq, Muhammad Jawadullah, Muhammad Waseem, Omid Rahman, Rahul Bhatia, Tanish Suri, Vishnu Sukumaran, Vriitya Aravind
Fixtures
Friday, November 1 – Oman v UAE
Sunday, November 3 – UAE v Netherlands
Thursday, November 7 – UAE v Oman
Saturday, November 9 – Netherlands v UAE
Punchy appearance
Roars of support buoyed Mr Johnson in an extremely confident and combative appearance
Profile box
Company name: baraka
Started: July 2020
Founders: Feras Jalbout and Kunal Taneja
Based: Dubai and Bahrain
Sector: FinTech
Initial investment: $150,000
Current staff: 12
Stage: Pre-seed capital raising of $1 million
Investors: Class 5 Global, FJ Labs, IMO Ventures, The Community Fund, VentureSouq, Fox Ventures, Dr Abdulla Elyas (private investment)
Kanguva
Director: Siva
Stars: Suriya, Bobby Deol, Disha Patani, Yogi Babu, Redin Kingsley
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IF YOU GO
The flights
FlyDubai flies direct from Dubai to Skopje in five hours from Dh1,314 return including taxes. Hourly buses from Skopje to Ohrid take three hours.
The tours
English-speaking guided tours of Ohrid town and the surrounding area are organised by Cultura 365; these cost €90 (Dh386) for a one-day trip including driver and guide and €100 a day (Dh429) for two people.
The hotels
Villa St Sofija in the old town of Ohrid, twin room from $54 (Dh198) a night.
St Naum Monastery, on the lake 30km south of Ohrid town, has updated its pilgrims' quarters into a modern 3-star hotel, with rooms overlooking the monastery courtyard and lake. Double room from $60 (Dh 220) a night.
Nayanthara: Beyond The Fairy Tale
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Director: Amith Krishnan
Rating: 3.5/5
ETFs explained
Exhchange traded funds are bought and sold like shares, but operate as index-tracking funds, passively following their chosen indices, such as the S&P 500, FTSE 100 and the FTSE All World, plus a vast range of smaller exchanges and commodities, such as gold, silver, copper sugar, coffee and oil.
ETFs have zero upfront fees and annual charges as low as 0.07 per cent a year, which means you get to keep more of your returns, as actively managed funds can charge as much as 1.5 per cent a year.
There are thousands to choose from, with the five biggest providers BlackRock’s iShares range, Vanguard, State Street Global Advisors SPDR ETFs, Deutsche Bank AWM X-trackers and Invesco PowerShares.
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Bharat
Director: Ali Abbas Zafar
Starring: Salman Khan, Katrina Kaif, Sunil Grover
Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars
