Cola Foundation and Injaz Al-Arab announced the winning teams of the ninth cycle of the Ripples of Happiness program. The university award was won by The Princess Noura University team. Their project titled ‘We Are All One' aims to put a smile on the faces of cancer patients and spread positive message amongst children through series of interactive sessions. The team was awarded a $10,000 grant to fund and scale their project. The high school's award was won by Thanaweyya 116 from Jeddah. Their project ‘Daikhar' raises the community's awareness on savings and consequences of debts among youth. The ‘Ripples of Happiness' program focuses on empowering youth innovation and entrepreneurship to equip them with the skills they need to become socially responsible members of their respective societies. The Coca-Cola Foundation joined forces with Injaz Al Arab to train students in the art of identifying opportunities in their local communities and how to implement projects that will leave a positive impact. Since the program was launched in 2012, over 3,000 students have participated along with 200 volunteers from across the private sector and a total of 80,000 hours of community service were recorded. The winners, who were selected by a judging panel that included representatives from The Coca-Cola Company, Injaz Al Arab and Al Olayan Group, were announced during INJAZ's annual event in Jeddah. The event was held under the patronage of Dr. Abdul Rahman bin Mohammed Al-Barrak, Undersecretary of the Ministry of Education (for males), and included officials from various government and business entities as well as members of the press community. The initiative comes in line with the Kingdom's effort to unlock the potential talents of youth, and enable them to play a vital role in achieving the Saudi Arabia's Vision for 2030. Students were trained by workshops aimed at developing their entrepreneurial and business management skills. Speaking at the announcement, Omar Bennis, Director of Public Affairs and Communications at The Coca-Cola Company Middle East, said: "We are delighted at Coca-Cola to see that participating students were engaged and are creating great projects aimed at benefitting their communities. At Coca-Cola, we share with Injaz Al Arab a vision of entrepreneurship as a means of empowering young people to improve their lives and contribute to their countries, and of addressing global employment challenges. We recognize that there is a strong need to foster and nurture student's skill for the future, and we are seeing wonderful submissions year on year that prove to us that we're on the right track." Akef Aqrabawi, CEO of Injaz Al Arab said, "Today, I could not be more proud of the strategic partnership Injaz Al Arab has had with Coca-Cola Foundation for the past four years. The fruitful collaboration has enabled us to positively impact and reach over 3,000 students in the Arab World, while shedding light on the importance of social entrepreneurship and its impact on surrounding communities. Our students are now able to raise the bar for design thinking and problem solving with their leading initiatives." — SG
