Mohammed Amin has won the prestigious Martin Adler Prize, awarded by the renowned Rory Peck Trust, for his work as a freelance correspondent for Middle East Eye from Sudan on November 15.
“I have a very short message to my colleagues in Sudan, ‘Be yourself, be independent, tell the truth, tell the real stories’,” Amin said upon receiving the award in London.
Amin’s reporting has been described as “fearless” and “some of the finest coming out of northeast Africa”. He is known for his vast network of sources and determination to file stories despite regularly facing arrest and beatings by Sudanese security forces.
The award submission said Amin’s “stories strike to the heart of Sudan’s repeated tragedies: repression, abuse, international neglect and intrigue, and over the past year have recorded a deeply disturbing chapter in Sudanese history that western governments appear all too keen to ignore”.
7-yr-old Syrian Civil War Survivor Wins Arab Reading Challenge Award
Sham Al Bakoor, 7, from Syria, was crowned the Arab Reading Champion for 2022 out of 22.27 million participants who hail from 44 countries around the world. The award ceremony was held in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates on November 10.
Sham Al-Bakour, was just six months old when her family’s car was bombed during the violence in Aleppo in December 2015. Her father was killed while she and her mother survived the horrific attack.
At the grand conclusion of the Arab Reading Challenge at the magnificent Dubai Opera, Sham was receiving the prestigious award at the hands of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE.
Sham, who read 70 books to win the competition, said, “I love reading because there’s so much that you can learn so that we can be successful. I invite all children to take part in this competition because it is very rewarding.”
During the ceremony, three other awards were announced. Mokhtar Gazoulit school from Morocco bagged The Best School Award, after being selected from among 92,583 participating schools. The Outstanding Supervisor award was given to Nour Al Jabbour from Jordan who was selected out of 126,061 supervisors and the Community Champions Award, recognising a reading champion from students living in non-Arab countries was given to Nada Al Sattari from Palestine living in Belgium.
The sixth edition of the Arab Reading Challenge – the biggest in its history – has witnessed a 536 per cent growth in the number of participating students in comparison to its first edition. The competition, organised by Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives, offers a prize of Dh1 million for the Best School, Dh500,000 for the first champion, Dh300,000 for the Outstanding Supervisor, and Dh100,000 for the Community Champion.