Baghdad, Iraq (November 17th, 2021) – Rwanga Foundation held the final ceremony for its annual Rwanga Awards for the 8^th year in a row, in which the winners of ten categories had been unveiled, announced and awarded. The Awards was guided by entertainment performances.

Different than the previous years of the competition, the project was held on the level of Iraq in coordination with the Ministry of Youth and Sports, and the final ceremony for awarding the winners took place at the National Theatre in Baghdad with the attendance of Jeanine Plasschaert (Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Iraq and Head of the UNAMI), Mr.Adnan Darjal (the minister of Youth and Sports), the Mayor of Baghdad, and many dignitaries from the government, ministers, and well-known celebrities. During the ceremony, the first, second, and third place winners for each of the ten categories were announced and awarded.

The winners for the Rwanga Awards 2021 are:

The opening of the ceremony started with a musical performance by the National Heritage Group and was followed by opening speeches from the CED of Rwanga Foundation. During his speech, Abdulsalam Medeni (CED of Rwanga Foundation) stated “A nation that does not think of its youth is a suicidal nation, Young people are an opportunity and a solution for many societies, but if they are not taken care of, they will be timed bombs”.

Besides announcing the winners for the ten categories and awarding them, the ceremony also offered many singing performances to the guests, including two songs by the famous Iraqi singer (Mustafa Al-Abdullah) and a duet song that combined both Arabic and Kurdish languages and was presented by the aforementioned singer in collaboration with the famous Kurdish singer (Parwaz Hussien), the song was specially produced to be presented for the first time on the stage of Rwanga Awards and combined both the Kurdish and Arabic cultures.

the jury members for the Rwanga Awards 2021 were:

Short Story (Kurdish) (Mardin Ibrahim Hamad - Poet and Novelist, Hakeem Abdullah Mohammed – Author)

Short Story (Arabic) (Alyaa Alansari - Novelist and Exective Director at Bint Alrafidain Organization, Ahmed Aljndel - Novelist and Critic)

Drawing (Sahar Jabbar – Painter , Huda Ahmed Sabri – Artist)

Photography (Jamal Penjwene - Head of the Visual Media Department at the Iraqi Prime Minister's Office, Thaier Alsudani - Chief Photographer at REUTERS)

Short film (Shurooq Alhasan – Actress, Kamiran Betasi - Film Director)

Scientific Innovation (Dr.Salah Abdal Azzo - Assistant Professor, Dr.Salih Mustafa Atrushey - Assistant Professor)

Entrepreneurship (Ammar Al-Khatib - Executive Director at The Station Foundation, Waleed Mustafa Khalid - Deputy General Manager of Darin Group)

Recycled Art (Firas Jalo – Artist, Dr.Rezan Omer Rashid - PHD in Enviromental Pollution)

Solo Musician (Dr.Jange Jalal Hasan – PHD in Music, Dr.Ali Mshari - Head of  Musical Arts Department at the University of Basrah)

Poetry (Kurdish) (Rozh Halabjaye – Poet, Ismael Hajani - Poet and Author)

Software Development (Amanj Ali – Founder of Avesta Company, Dr. Nawzad Kameran Salayi - Head of Outreach and Capacity Building, Department of Information Technology of KRG)

The sponsors for the Rwanga Awards 2021 were (KurdNeft and Babylon) as Diamond Sponsors, (Erbil International Hotel, Darin Group, MRF Group, and Kavin Group) as Gold Sponsors, (Hemn Group, Fastlink, Fox, AD Media, Lucid) as Silver Sponsors, (Rudaw Media Network) as Media Partner, (K24, Stars Casablanca, Zagros TV, Kurdistan TV, Waar TV, Planet Magazine, Shafaq News) as Media Sponsors. The project was held in Coordination with the Ministry of Youth and Sports.

The Rwanga Awards is an annual project of Rwanga Foundation. With the goal of improving and fostering the potential of the youth, Rwanga Awards strives to discover talents, to strengthen confidence and to collect all types of artistic, literary, and scientific projects created and developed throughout Iraq by the youths aged between 15 and 25 years. The categories are: Arabic Short Story, Kurdish Short Story, Short Film, Recycled Art, Scientific Innovation, Entrepreneurship, Solo Musician, Photography, Drawing, Kurdish Poetry, Arabic Poetry, and Software Development.