Wealthy UAE family launches Arab world's biggest educational trust

(20 Apr 2016) LEAD IN:
A multi-billionaire UAE family has launched the Arab world's largest educational trust.
The Abdulla Al Ghurair Foundation for Education will fund thousands of scholarships to the tune of 1.14 billion US dollars.

STORY-LINE:
With a few signatures, the futures of thousands of young people are changed forever.
UAE Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum shakes hands with university representatives at the launch of the Abdulla Al Ghurair Foundation for Education.
The 1.14 billion US dollar initiative is being funded by the Al Ghurair family which plans on ploughing a huge slice of their wealth into the project.
"It has to be significant in size. It has to make an impact in the region," says Abdul Aziz Al Ghurair, the foundation's chairman.
"It's the revenue for all of our business, one third of that will go to the trust."
The foundation will provide scholarships for 15,000 Middle Eastern students over the next 10 years.
The recipients will be those in need of financial assistance who also qualify for entrance to the region's top universities.
Abdul says the idea came when his father, Abdulla Al Ghurair, realised there were many able men and women in the Middle East without the means to further their education.
"Why not pick up all these talented students who deserve to be in the best universities and give them the scholarship," he says.
Today, the first agreements are being signed with The American University in Cairo, The American University of Beirut, The American University of Sharjah and Khalifa University in Abu Dhabi.
The first batch of recipients will receive scholarships as early as this autumn.
Applicants will need to demonstrate their commitment to the region as well as undertake community work.
The trust also plans on finding its students work placements to help them make the leap from education to the job market.
More than half of the Middle East's population is under 25.
But it had the world's highest youth unemployment rates in 2014, with 46 percent of females and 24 percent of males unemployed, according to the International Labor Organization.
Maysa Jalbout, CEO of The Abdulla Al Ghurair Foundation for Education, says the trust will give its students a big boost.
"Young people are craving a quality education and we're hoping to help them enter the top universities, both in the region and globally, so that they can be competitive and be able to compete on a global level for the jobs of the future," she says.
The Al Ghurair family has stakes in a number of businesses, including the Dubai-based Mashreq Bank, as well as in iron and steel, packaging, cement and insurance companies.


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