MKF to Launch New Educational Projects Soon

Her Highness Shaikha Zain bint Khalid Al Khalifa, Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of AlMabarrah AlKhalifia Foundation (MKF), has revealed that the Foundation is planning to launch new charitable projects in the field of education, noting that "these projects will be announced in due course."

"Our ambitions are great and we are working towards further expansion, as the Foundation focuses its charitable work on delivering educational programmes," Her Highness added. She noted that MKF currently hosts two projects related to education, with the Rayaat programme providing university scholarships to some 40 students this year. Applications opened this year and will close shortly. Her Highness pointed out that the programme was launched three years ago and now supports more than 100 male and female students enrolled in it.

The financial support extended by MKF to the Rayaat programme during 2013-2014 reached approximately BD 12,500, covering workshops and incentives for each student enrolled at the University of Bahrain and Bahrain Polytechnic. The Foundation also supports students of medicine at the Arabian Gulf University at a cost of BD 75,000 per student, covering seven years of study. In addition, the Foundation covers the tuition fees of 103 male and female students registered at accredited universities in the Kingdom.

Her Highness further noted that the Foundation's Ithra Youth programme aims to train 200 male and female students from Bahrain's schools, aged between 13 and 14, in order to promote and instil educational values that help build and develop life skills and leadership qualities. "The programme seeks to nurture the skills of Bahraini youth and to develop their intellectual, mental and physical abilities and talents so that they become capable of serving their community and their nation," she said.

In its third edition, the latter programme centres on engaging the participating student with the community as an active member serving himself, his society and his country. This is achieved through training workshops, field visits and purposeful camps, in addition to community service.

It is worth noting that AlMabarrah AlKhalifia Foundation, established in May 2011 on the initiative of women active in this sector, is among the institutions that have sought to study the varying needs of the different components and segments of society in order to provide programmes and initiatives aimed generally at developing the national human resource, regarded as one of the country's sources of strength and the foundation of its future progress.