Sheikh Nahayan presents Sheikha Fatima Awards to 28 GEMS students

Press release

Published April 27th, 2011 - 12:54 GMT

Al Bawaba

His Excellency Sheikh Nahayan Mabarak Al Nahayan, UAE Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research, today, awarded the Sheikha Fatima Bint Mubarak Award for Excellence to 28 girls from the GEMS network of schools across the Middle East and India.

The seventh annual award includes a scholarship to cover a year’s tuition fee at a GEMS school and a memento. The Awards were started by GEMS in 2005 to honour Her Highness Sheikha Fatima Bint Mubarak, wife of late President His Highness Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, for her contributions to the empowerment of the UAE women, and her support for excellence in all areas. The event acknowledges Her Highness’ role as mother of the nation, and her vision to celebrate, and support women’s achievements and self determination.

The award has traditionally recognized young women from GEMS Schools in the UAE. Since 2009, the award has been extended to all female students from GEMS Schools around the Middle East and India. Two young women from Qatar, one from Jordan and India each attended today’s award ceremony.

These outstanding girls were nominated by their schools and were chosen based on outstanding academic success, significant contribution to environmental concerns, high level of commitment to the communities they live in and their demonstration of world citizenship.

GEMS Founder and Chairman Sunny Varkey congratulated the students, parents and teachers, and urged the winners to pursue excellence in all their future endeavours. “I congratulate these young girls for their exceptional academic achievements and their significant contributions to their schools and the community.”

“Sheikha Fatima Awards celebrate promising students in our schools and encourages them to maintain their social commitment as well as academic and extra curricular excellence. We are committed to promoting talent and supporting our youth for their contributions to the society,” Varkey added.

The Award is another example of the commitment by GEMS Schools to recognize and celebrate the achievements of GEMS Students, while providing them with quality education.

Background Information

GEMS Education

In 1959, two teachers, KS Varkey and his wife Mariamma, arrived in Dubai.

At the time, Dubai was a burgeoning trade centre on the Arabian Gulf. The Varkey family had left Kerala, India to seek a better life for their family. What they found was a real need to educate children arriving in the city from around the world.

Their son, Sunny, added a visionary’s ambition to a practitioner's experience. From simple roots in a family of teachers, GEMS Education, is today an international company with schools and education services across the Middle East. We still share the same mission - to provide a quality education to everyone.