Submission process opens for WISE Awards
World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) yesterday opened the submission process for the 2013 WISE Awards.
By recognising projects that have a positive and tangible impact on education, the WISE Awards seek to highlight today’s most innovative initiatives in education from around the world.
Finalists and winning projects of the WISE Awards demonstrate real-world solutions to current educational challenges and also serve as examples that can potentially be replicated in other parts of the world.
Applicants have to submit details of their projects on the WISE Awards website, www.wise-qatar.org/awards, by March 31. A shortlist of 12 finalists will be announced in June, after which a jury of international education experts will choose six winning projects.
Selected in September, they will be showcased at the 2013 WISE Summit in Doha from October 29-31. The winning projects will each receive $20,000 and benefit from global visibility through the WISE network: a community of more than 9,000 education experts and practitioners from 152 countries.
This way, the winning teams and finalists have the opportunity to promote their achievements and create new partnerships that could lead to the growth and replication of projects in other educational contexts and regions of the world.
HE Sheikh Abdulla bin Ali al-Thani, chairman of WISE, said: “Through the WISE Awards, we are not only seeking out and honouring projects that solve real-world challenges to education, but are ultimately creating a toolbox of best practices in education. Thanks to WISE’s diverse, global platform, we are able to showcase these projects for communities around the world to replicate. In 2013, we are working to encourage more applications. We know that there are many exciting projects taking place and we want to recognise and share this work. There is a lot that Qatar can teach the world.”
The applicants must demonstrate how their projects have made a positive contribution within a community or society through education. In addition to projects in schools, previous submissions have included creative initiatives from the vocational, corporate and agricultural sectors.
For example, The Smallholder Farmers Rural Radio, a winning project in 2010 from Nigeria, broadcasts radio programmes on crop cultivation, livestock rearing and soil management 10 hours a day in the local Igbo language, reaching and educating small farmers. Similarly, the Cristo Rey Network, an organisation based in the USA and a winning project in 2012, facilitates work experience in local companies thatprovides practical training and covers tuition fees for students from low-income families.
New drugs for heart ailments soon
As many as five new drugs are to be introduced for the treatment of arteriosclerosis and other heart-related ailments in the Hospital for Heart Diseases and at the National Centre for Research and Treatment of Cancer.
Quoting reliable sources, a report in the local daily Arrayah said that these drugs are the latest products for the treatment of heart ailments and cancer.
The outpatient department at the Hospital for Heart Diseases attends to 200 patients a day.
The hospital has also set up a cell for sterilised intravenous fluids in accordance with USP 797 which is endorsed by the US Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organisations (JCAHO). It is a far-reaching regulation that governs a wide range of pharmacy policies and procedures.
It is designed both to cut down on infections transmitted to patients through pharmaceutical products and to better protect staff working in pharmacies in the course of their exposure to pharmaceuticals.
238 Indians await deportation at Doha centre
A total of 709 Indian expatriates died in Qatar in the last three years, embassy officials said at a monthly community house.
The highest number of deaths was in 2011, when 239 deaths were reported at the Indian embassy.
In 2010 and 2012, the figures were 233 and 237 respectively.
In the month of January 2013, 26 deaths were reported in the community.
The house was also informed that 238 Indian nationals are housed at the Search and Follow-up Department’s Deportation Centre, waiting to leave the country.
The country’s Central Prison houses 38 Indians, serving jail sentences of for various crimes.
Games for Landmark employees
Landmark Group Qatar recently announced the opening of Landmark Olympics. It started with the lighting of the torch by Santosh Pai, chief operation officer, Landmark Group Qatar, and concept heads of Qatar.
Landmark Olympics will include games such as football, basketball, volleyball, cricket and softball. The event will be conducted over a period of five weeks and the staff, comprising both men and women, will participate in the games.
“Our employees are vital to our success and growth. A happy, motivated employee makes for a better customer experience, too. We believe in investing in our staff’s job satisfaction and use a number of approaches to achieve this,” said Pai.