Erbil, KURDISTAN (November 28, 2019) – The Rwanga Awards 2019: For the 6th time, the Rwanga Foundation presented its Annual Rwanga Awards, in which the winners of ten categories had been unveiled, announced and awarded. The Award was guided by entertainment performances such as singing, acts and dancing.

During the two-hour ceremony, 30 winners had been announced as first, second and third place winners for the then categories of Short Film, Recycled Art, Drawing, Scientific Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Solo Music, Software Development, Poetry and Photography. Over thousand people were eager and excited to find out the final results of this year’s Rwanga Awards.

With the goal of improving and fostering the potential of the youth, the Rwanga Awards strives to discover talents, to strengthen confidence and to collect all types of artistic, literary, and scientific projects created and developed throughout the Kurdistan region. From the 28th of September until the 15th of October, the Rwanga Foundation encouraged youths, aged between 15 to 25 years, to apply their art work, ideas and scientific inventions from all over Kurdistan (including refugees and IDPs). The number of applications for the Rwanga Awards 2019 were 462 (294 Male and 168 Female) applications from the 10 categories.

The youths were passionately willing to participate and to submit their art and scientific work. Submissions should have been related to the specific given fields of short story, short film, recycled art, scientific innovation, entrepreneurship, solo music, software development, poetry and photography. To participate, interested individuals had been given assistance and a guideline by reading the necessary conditions, rules and regulations of each category and send his/her subject in, to be evaluated by a fine selected specialized jury (two judges per each category). After evaluation process, the awards were given to the winners at the Rwanga Awards 2019 ceremony in Erbil. During the ceremony the winners were unveiled for each category.

During the Rwanga Awards, entertainment groups were performing. First off, the Illuminati Dance Crew performed light dance, which opened the Awards with some
beautiful piece of music and dance. Followed by a muisic performce from two winners of pervious year. Last but not least , young singer Bana Sherwan gave the Rwanga Awards a perfect elegant and gracious end.

Location of the projects: Erbil, Sulaimani, Duhok, Kirkuk, and Halabja

The evaluation committee for the Rwanga Awards 2019 was:

Short Story (Ismail Hajani, Writer and Novelist - Aram Sdiq, Writer and Critic)
Drawing (Hassan Murad, Artist - Huda Ahmed, Artist)
Photography (Safin Hamid, Photographer - Soran Nakhshabandy, Photographer)
Short film (Huner Saleem, Film Director – Hawraz Muhammad, Film Director)
Scientific Innovation (Mwfaq Jalil, Lecturer - Shivan Askar, Lecturer)
Entrepreneurship (Talan Aouny, General Manager of Erbil Manpower - Astara Maiure, Business Development Manager at Five 1 Lab)
Recycled Art ( Salih Najeeb, Lecturer - Younis Ahmed, Lecturer)
Solo Musician (Chato Nawroz, Musician - Mohammed Zaki, Musician)
Poetry (Shamal Akray, Poet and Writer - Peshraw Abdulla, Writer and Critic)
Software Development ( Hejar Berenji, CTO-Rudaw Media Network - Amanj Ali, Co-Founder of Avesta Company)

The 6^th Annual Rwanga Awards was sponsored by 30 Sponsors, our Sponsors consisted of (DIAMOND SPONSORS (KOREK TELECOM, KAR GROUP, KHOSHNAW GROUP), GOLDEN SPONSORS. (FASTLINK, AD MEDIA, DARIN GROUP, ERBIL INTERNATIONAL HOTEL, PHONEIX STUDIO, PEPSI, MELLAT HOLDING, MRF GROUP, HEMN GROUP), SILVER SPOSORS (SCHNEIDER ELECTRIC, HELLA AGENCY, CLICK IRAQ, GEG REKLAM), MEDIA PARTNERS (RUDAW TV, K24), MEDIA SPONSORS (AVA TV, WAAR TV, KURDISTAN TV, NET TV, KURDMAX, FALCON EYE, FALCON FAMILY, ACE CHANNEL, M RADIO, BABYLON FM, MIX FM, AND DUHOK TV).

The Rwanga Awards officially started in 2014 and ever since was taking place in difference cities: Erbil for 2014, Sulaimani for 2015, Duhok for 2016 and Erbil for 2017 and 2018. This year, the ceremony was taken back to its birthplace in Erbil, this time at the Saad Abdullah Conference Hall.

RWANGA AWARDS 2019 WINNERS

#	Category	Prize	Full Name	Gender	Governorate	Product Name
1	Solo Musician	First	Awder Abdul Abdulla	Male	Slemani	Etude op 10 No.12 Revolutionary
		Second	Rawa Badran Qader	Male	Erbil	C- Zardash
		Third	Ahmed Himdad Nadir	Male	Erbil	سەمای دڵ (Dance of Heart)
2	Photography	First	Salih Hamasur Salih	Male	Slemani – Ranya	سادەیی لە سوچێکی ژیان (Simplicity in a corner of life)
		Second	Harem Ali Hassan	Male	Erbil	ئازار و ئومێد (Pain and Hope)
		Third	Diyari Ali Ismail	Male	Slemani – Ranya	میهرەبانی (Kindness)
3	Drawing	First	Tara Abdullah Mohammed Sharif	Female	Slemani	ئازاری ژن (Pain of a Woman)
		Second	Hardi Mahdi Hama Salih	Male	Erbil	کۆچبەر (Immigrant)
		Third	Zina Azad Rashid	Female	Erbil	Dear World (ئازیزم ژیان)
4	Recycled Art	First	Payam Abdullah Hama	Female	Erbil	ژینگە (Environment)
		Second	Israa Muslih Ali	Female	Erbil	مێزی درومانی بەکارهێنراوە (Reused Sewing Stand)
		Third	Hemn Sami Yahya	Male	Erbil - Massif	دەزگای گۆشت ووردکردن (Reused Grinding Machine)
5	Software Development	First	Laveen Ismail Ahmed	Female	Slemani – Chamchamal	Green Doctor
		Second	Harman Hassan Muhammad	Male	Duhok	Hotline
		Third	Mohammed Kafi Farooq	Male	Erbil	Gas Online System
6	Poetry	First	Besaran Qasim Kareem	Female	Kirkuk	گۆرانییەکانی جەنگ (War Songs)
		Second	Bukhary Wshyar Othman	Male	Erbil	کورسییەکەی شەقامی خودا (God Street’s Chair)
		Third	Ahmed Ayad Mohammed Salih	Male	Erbil	کاپیتال م ی یم نەخۆشیەک ترە بۆ زەوی (Capitalism is another disease for earth)
7	Short Story	First	Diman Abdullah Abdulhamid	Female	Duhok - Akre	ساردی ڕۆبۆت... گەرم ئیشق (Robot Coldness … Love warmness)
		Second	Dilbreen Abdulfattah Ali	Female	Duhok	هیڤیەک بۆ ژیانێ (A hope for life)
		Third	Ahmed Sami Majeed	Male	Erbil	سەرزەمینی گوناهەکان (Land of Sins)
8	Scientific Innovation	First	Matin Dler Ramiz	Male	Erbil	Robot Arm Tank ( تانکی باڵی رۆبۆت)
		Second	Banoo Omer Ahmed	Female	Slemani	IV fluid hospital system ( سیستەمی کۆنتڕۆڵکردنی شلە)
		Third	Kevork Hikaz Faraj	Male	Erbil	Satellite Soil Moisture Measuring Robot ( ڕۆبۆتی سەتەلایتی پێوانەکردنی ڕادەی شێ)
9	Entrepreneurship	First	Hemn Hadi Hussein	Male	Slemani	Town Clothing
		Second	Kani Jalil Fattah	Female	Erbil	کافێ پاسی هەولێر (Bus Café – Erbil)
		Third	Taha Yaseen Mohammed Ameen	Male	Slemani – Kalar	سابوونی سروشتی قەڵا (Qalla Natural Soup)
10	Short Film	First	Kaiwan Bestoon Mohammed	Male	Erbil	I want to fly
		Second	Kosrat Burhan Bakr	Male	Slemani	1 in 182000
		Third	Yadasht Yousuf Rasool	Male	Slemani	Death

EDUCATION