Two lucky winners from Bahrain, Sayed Alawi Hashim and Khalid Janahi, have been awarded the MasterCard-sponsored artistic excellence awards at the annual Bahrain Awareness Awards which took place at the Ritz – Carlton. The prize-distribution ceremony was held under the patronage of His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al-Khalifa, the Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Prime Minister.The initiative, launched by Labour Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA) and supported by MasterCard, aims to inspire youth to have a positive involvement in Bahrain’s social movement, addressing key issues relating to human rights. This year, the competition theme centered around “paying domestic workers on time”, with the hopes of generating public awareness on the rights of expatriate workers in Bahrain.
Chief Executive Officer of the LMRA, Ausamah Al Absi, delivered a speech in which he highlighted the aims of this year’s awards. He added that the competition helped to motivate young Bahrainis to drive awareness among all segments of the Bahraini society of the need to ensure that the rights of all are protected in the Kingdom for years to come. He emphasised the important role played by His Royal Highness the Crown Prince in further developing human rights in Bahrain, a key priority of the Kingdom’s sustainable development programme. He concluded by saying that the winners who competed in the Bahrain Awareness Awards have produced 23 distinctive pieces of work, all of which won the hearts and minds of both the judging panel and the public.
Al-Absi added that this group of young participants have worked for seven months and used various social media platforms to promote their work among Bahrain’s community. He said that their combined work has reached 750,000 individuals with 59% of the viewers from neighboring GCC countries, prompting the competition’s organisers to expand the scope of the awards to include citizens and residents of all GCC countries in the second iteration of the competition.
Commenting on the event, Raghav Prasad, General Manager, Gulf Countries, MasterCard: “We are very proud to be part of the first ever Bahrain Awareness Awards and grant two lucky participants the artistic excellence awards for their creativity, talent, and heartwarming submissions. As a technology company in the payments industry, this theme is particularly relevant to MasterCard. But, even beyond that, we share a common vision with the Labour Market Regulatory Authority to empower youth and influence positive change across the community.”
The competition received submissions from 53 participants aged 16-26, where they had to create fresh and new ideas that speak to and support this year’s theme, the artwork had to be submitted in the form of a photo, drawing, short movie, or a poster and promoted via the different social media channels.
Other winners include:
1- Mahdi Rafi in the first place for his short film “Maria”.
2- Sana Allah Mohammed Ali in the second place for her short film “Shades”.
3- Omar Farooq in the third place for his short film “The Housemaid”.
4- Zainab Al Haddad and Isa Hijris for their short film “The Suffering of a labourer”.
5- Ahmed Ali in the fifth place for his short film “This is my right”.
For more information on the competition and to view the shortlisted entries, please visit the official website: www.bahrainawards.com.