Dubai, 12 April 2009 (WAM) - HRH Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein, wife of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of UAE, Ruler of Dubai, last night honoured the winners of the Princess Haya Award for Special Education created to recognise the excellence demonstrated by employees in the Special Needs sector.
Senior government officials, heads of departments, public and private sector representatives and other dignitaries were present at the awards ceremony held at the Madinat Jumeirah. Mr. Mohammed Al Emadi, head of the Award's executive committee, emphasised the significant impact of the Award's on the special education sector and underlined its importance in promoting excellence in the work place amongst the different categories of Special Needs employees. At the end of his speech, Mr. Al Emadi praised the supporters of the Award, singling out the role of its main sponsors Dubai Health Authority, National Bonds, GEMS, Madinat Jumeirah, and media partner AMG. He also thanked the co-sponsors Dewa, Al Maktoum Charity Foundation and Dubai Investments. Faten Hani, Head of the Jury said: "We have established very clear protocols for the selection of the awards winners. The nominees, all of whom were of an exceptionally high standared, have been through a three stage provcess. The first stage identified the validity of the nomination. A short list of three was then established for each category. The final stage was to select the winner for each category. This process has taken the Jury overy 180 hours but our time was well spent as I am delighted to say that in the case of each award, the decision of the Jury was unanimous." Heading the list of winners was Al Noor Training Centre for Children with Special Needs, which was presented with 10 awards in different categories:Outstanding Occupational Therapist award - Deena Ashok; Computer Therapist - Purvi Shah; Movement Therapist - Ikram Ul Hassan Jalali; Finance Employee - Neetha Sathia Kumar; Director General - for Isphana Al Khatib. The Outstanding Special Needs Project award was presented for its project "Work Placement"; Outstanding Awareness Campaign for the "Communication for All" campaign; Outstanding Marketing Campaign for "Anything is Possible" campaign; Outstanding Fundraising Campaign for "Fun Fair"; and the major award: Outstanding Special Needs Center. A further seven awards were presented to the Dubai Autism Center: Outstanding Special Needs Educator - Sandhya Perera; Outstanding Psychologist - Sarah Al Marzooqi; Outstanding Speech Therapist - Mohammed Fteiha; Outstanding Special Education Supervisor - Christina Maria Bellos; Outstanding Administration Employee - Salim Khalfan; Outstanding Awareness Campaign for "Autism April 2008" and the award of the Employee of the Year - Mohammed Fteiha. Dubai Center for Special Needs won three awards Outstanding Physiotherapist - Natasha Van Caster, Outstanding Art Therapist - Toma Gabor and the award of Outstanding Family was presented jointly to the parents of Zehra Kavarna and the parents of Mahmoud Jarroor from Abu Hanifa School. The British Institute for Learning Development won the award for Outstanding Special Needs Research for its paper entitled "Increasing Cognitive Development through Sensory Integration Therapy". The Special Need Families Centre (SNF) won the award for the outstanding website. The Princess Haya Award for Special Education received a total of 109 nominations for the 3 main award categoriesThe Outstanding Special Educator category received 10 nominees while the Outstanding Therapist category received 35 and the Management Initiative category received 10. The Outstanding Special Needs Project category received five nominees whereas the Management Campaign category received 10 and the Outstanding Management Category received five. Other categories which received nominations are: Outstanding Website six; Family of Special Needs Child nine; Special Needs Center seven; Special Needs Supervisor seven; Special Needs Research five. At this time, a team of experts in special education and business management has started the process of evaluation and arbitration to announce the names of the winners in April 2009. The Princess Haya Award for Special Education was launched on November 23rd 2008 with the aim of becoming the first of its kind in the region. It targets best practice in the Special Needs sector according to the highest international standards. The initiative also aims to encourage people working in Special Needs to excel and set higher service standards in all fields of special education.Copyright Emirates News Agency (WAM) 2009.
