ASFARI FOUNDATION ANNOUNCES FIRST EVER ALUMNI AWARD WINNERS
At the Asfari Foundation’s Annual Dinner on 27 October the winners of the Foundation’s inaugural Alumni Award were announced. The Alumni Award, launched to celebrate the Foundation’s ten year anniversary, seeks to recognise the contribution of the Foundation’s alumni to their countries and communities and their achievements since completing their Asfari Foundation scholarships. The prize-winners donate 50% of their prize money to a project of their choice.
Ayman and Sawsan Asfari presented the Alumni Award to the three prize-winners. The third prize was awarded to Ola Issa from the West Bank (Country Director, DVV International Palestine). The second prize was awarded to Nadia El-Sebai, (Executive Director of the Arab British Centre in London). Ola and Nadia both received bursaries from the Asfari Foundation to participate in Columbia Business School’s “Developing Leaders Program for Non-profit Professionals” in 2014 and 2016 respectively. The first prize went to Ibrahim al-Miari, who received an Asfari Foundation/Medical Aid for Palestinians scholarship to study for an MSc in Public and Environmental Health at the University of Birmingham in 2015-16.
Ibrahim, who is a Palestinian refugee in Lebanon, works as Area Nursing Officer with UNRWA in Tyre, South Lebanon, where he supervises healthcare services for approximately eighty eight thousand Palestinian refugees. In his acceptance speech, Ibrahim said: “without a doubt, the scholarship has played a key role in helping me help people in particularly deprived areas of Lebanon…Because of [the support of the Asfari Foundation], people like me have had the opportunity to pursue their dreams and make a difference to the lives of others.” Ibrahim will be contributing 50% of his prize money towards a diabetes screening and awareness campaign for Palestinian refugees in Lebanon.
The Asfari Foundation is proud of its expanding alumni network and the fantastic work they continue to do to promote the values and vision of the Foundation in its target countries.
