AlFaisal Without Borders Foundation (Alf) held its biggest and most successful Destination Imagination (DI) national finals event recently at Qatar National Convention Centre (QNCC).
HE the Minister of Development Planning and Statistics Dr Saleh Mohamed Salem al-Nabit, Alf chairman HE Sheikh Faisal bin Qassim al-Thani and Sheikh Mohamed bin Faisal al-Thani were present.
A total of 220 teams with more than 1,000 students from 70 schools in Qatar competed to win the opportunity to fly the flag for Qatar at the US global finals in May.
HE Sheikh Faisal said one of the essential pillars of the vision of AlFaisal Without Borders is an interest in education, and to provide an improved quality of life for people in our community – “giving people something which no one can take back”.
“This is why we brought the DI life skills programme to Qatar to empower students and schoolchildren here. Qatar will host next year’s conference, to be attended by about 3,000 students from around the world.”
HE the Undersecretary of the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, Rabia Mohamed al-Kaabi, said the programme aligns with the aspirations of the Supreme Education Council (SEC) to help students have self-confidence, enhance their abilities and develop strong personalities, to be able succeed in life.
Alf Foundation general manager Abdullatif al-Yafei pointed out that the DI programme promotes life-long learning, teaching students who participate in it the skills necessary to adapt to an ever-changing world and become active decision-makers of the future.
Ali Mare, executive director of Alf, observed that the DI programme highlights the country’s leadership in innovative education initiatives.
This year’s DI national finals were supported by the SEC and sponsored by Amlak, QNCC, Microsoft, Qatar Airways and Bedaya Centre.
The 2015-2016 challenges that student teams addressed were technical, scientific, fine arts, improvisational, structural, service learning/project outreach and early learning/rising stars.
Talent development, independent thinking and teamwork were key aspects that underpinned the DI programme to ensure that students recognised their abilities, used them to the full and applauded the abilities of others.
The DI programme empowers students to acquire 21st century life skills such as public speaking, collaboration, project management, creativity and innovative thinking, to get a headstart in life.
Some 160 schools with 500 teams from Qatar and 50 international teams from the rest of the world will take part in a four-day tournament in 2016, which Qatar will host after being singled out by the US DI headquarters for its exemplary growth of the DI programme in the region.
HE Sheikh Faisal and HE Dr al-Nabit with one of the winning teams.
