Erbil, KURDISTAN (December 20th,  2020) – The Rwanga Awards 2020: For the 7th year in a row, the Rwanga Foundation held its Annual Rwanga Awards ceremony, in which the winners of ten categories had been unveiled, announced and awarded. The Awards was guided by entertainment performances such as singing, acts and dancing.

It is worth mentioning that due to the Covid-19 pandemic and in order to comply with the ministry of health's instructions, the ceremony was conducted differently from the previous years, with only the presence of a certain number of guests, including special guests, the evaluation committee, and the 10 category nominees. Before the date of the ceremony, all guests were tested to ensure the health of the guests. Social distancing was also ensured inside the ceremony hall.

AbdulSalam Medeni, Chief Executive Director of Rwanga Foundation made a speech at the ceremony opening and said: " Energy, science, love of life, future and ambition are found in young people. The Rwanga Foundation is trying to reach this goal by creating a platform for the youth to be able to show their talents and products and introduce them to the community."

In addition to the announcement of the winners, many interesting performances were performed during the ceremony. At the beginning of the ceremony, a poetry and a piece of music were presented by the ceremony presenters (Herman Muhammad and Dida Faraidun).

Moreover, Cultural dances under the title of "Living Together Cultural Dance" were performed by the Erbil Folk Arts Team, which includes various cultural dances for the different cultural ethnics living Kurdistan. The ceremony ended with a mashup performed by the two young artists (Ari Jan and Rasha Bilal).

The 7^th Annual Rwanga Awards was sponsored by 30 Sponsors consisting of: 

Diamond Sponsors: Korek Telecom, Al-Hayat Pepsi, Darin Group

Gold Sponsors: MRF Group, AD Media, Hemn Group, Erbil International Hotel, Fastlink, Burger King

Silver Sponsors: Lucid, Uni-Recycling, Saba Holding, Fox View, Andazeary Rang

Media Partners: Rudaw, K24

Media Sponsors: Net TV, Kurdistan TV, Zagros TV, Waar TV, Halabja TV, Mix FM, Duhok TV, Falcon TV Group, M Radio

The evaluation committee for the Rwanga Awards 2020 were:

The winners for the Rwanga Awards 2020 are:

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 20th of July until the 1st of November, the Rwanga Foundation encouraged the youth 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 2020 were which matched the 10 categories.

The Rwanga Awards officially started in 2014 and ever since was taking place in different cities: Erbil for 2014, Sulaimani for 2015, Duhok for 2016, and since 2017 the awards ceremony of Rwanga Awards takes place in Erbil. 

At the end of the deadline for applications, 544 products in the ten categories were submitted by the youth including (221 females, and 323 males).