Riffa Views Thanked for its Support to Children’s Library

Riffa Views, Signature Estates was in attendance for the sponsors’ award ceremony for the sponsorship of the Children’s Library at the Information Center for Women and Children.

The award ceremony, on Wednesday 28th of January, was presented by Shaikha Hind bint Salman Al Khalifa, member of the Board of Trustees of the Women and Child Welfare, with Dr. Majed Al Noami, Minister of Education in attendance.

Shaikha Hind bint Salman Al Khalifa welcomed the sponsors to the ceremony, stating that “Those who have given us their valued support for this cause have enabled us to provide the best in social services. The society is happy to confirm that we have helped 1000 families a year through our services with medical services, Eid celebration preparation, beginning of a school just to name a few but we also have to mention that the society received amazing support from the Ministry of Education in the form of 150 students volunteering at the society’.

The Library located in Isa Town at the Women and Child Welfare Society’s Information Center was initiated for the cause of educating the young within a positive environment. The Library houses 2000 books in English and Arabic which will be added to in the future; an entertainment division that includes a Television with educational and leisure videos; and a games room which includes electronics and educational games all for the children to benefit from. It also caters to the adults with books in English and Arabic including research and books published by well known Bahraini educators and writers.

The Educational facility doesn’t end there, with educational lectures for adults being provided by the Women and Child Welfare Society; courses in English, Computer, and Arabic Calligraphy; and workshops in art and music to facilitate different taste and requirements.

Richard Browning, CEO of Riffa Views commentated,” The opening of the library is an essential goal for the Women and Child Welfare Society to aspire and achieve and thus the reason why we as Riffa Views needed to be a part of this cause which enriches the Children and Future of Bahrain,’

The Future plan of the information center is wide and varied from a puppet show stand for the children to perform plays and sketches they read from the books and an art section within the center in which a work area will be provided for painting and pottery classes. The Women and Child Welfare Society are also going to start educational competitions for the children to compete in to provide them an outlet to express themselves and their knowledge. In addition, the society will also be providing a valuable venue for up and coming art exhibitions.

Anyone wishing to visit the Library the official Timings are from Sunday to Thursday – 9 am until1 pm, evening timings will be advised in the future.

Qatar Airways Sponsors Tournament Umpires

Qatar Airways announced their sponsorship today of the Riffa Views Inter-Gulf Netball Championships umpires. 8 “Talent and Youth” Umpires from England Netball will travel to Bahrain courtesy of Qatar Airways to officiate at the two day tournament, which will be held at the Rugby Club in March.

The Talent & Youth Umpires are part of a development programme at England Netball with the long-term aim of producing internationally accredited umpires under the age of 25. They will attend the tournament with two mentors who will monitor their performance and provide support and feedback over the weekend.

Event Manager, Michaela Milne said: “We are delighted that Qatar Airways has sponsored the Talent & Youth Umpire initiative. It means we achieve our dual goal of improving the standard of umpiring across the tournament while decreasing the umpiring burden on participating teams. The inclusion of the Talent & Youth Umpires is the most significant improvement we could have made on last year’s event and I’m sure they will make a huge impact at the tournament.

The Riffa Views Inter-Gulf Netball Championships will take place on March 13th and March 14th at the Bahrain Rugby Club in Saar. For more information, please contact Michaela Milne on 366 00 308 or visit the website: www.intergulfnetball.com

Schools delighted with Eden Challenge win

There are four very happy schools in Bahrain this week, safe in the knowledge that they are category winners in this year’s Riffa Views Eden Challenge schools competition. The results of the environmental challenge, open to all schools, were announced last week and the four winning schools contacted directly by the Eden Challenge organizing team with the good news.

Amena Bint Wahab Girls School have two reasons to be delighted – not only did they win Category A, they were also awarded ‘Highly Commended’ in Category B. Category A covered the Junior Primary age group for children between 6 – 9 years and required project entries to produce a water based sculpture.

Safeya Kamal, Administrative Supervisor at Amena Bint Wahab said, “We were delighted to hear this news, the girls and teachers worked so hard for it. When we saw the entries last year, we thought that we could enter again and win this year. We would like to thank Riffa Views for organizing such an interactive competition and giving us the chance to win. Last year when Richard Browning visited our school for tree planting, we thought it was a great and kind gesture…I am happy to say that the tree is coming along very nicely.”

The other school to take two awards was the Um Al Qoora Primary Intermediate Girls School– they were awarded the top spot in Category B, as well as being ‘Highly Commended’ in Category C. Category B required Primary schools, with children between 10 – 12 years, to produce a mosaic artwork image, highlighting the prestigious role played by ‘water’ across the course of history.

Reem Abdulaziz Al Arrayedh, Um Al Qoora’s Art Teacher was very happy to comment on their awards – “Obviously we are very glad that we participated in the Eden Challenge – it was really great news that not only did we win one category, we got the highly commended in another category as well. When we were told about us winning, the principal, the teachers and the entire school was happy – we received so many calls to congratulate us. We are looking forward to Riffa Views visiting our school so that we can show more of our work.”

Al Qayrawan School took the top prize in Category C, which covered the 13-15 years age group at Intermediate schools. Entries in this category had to design a Water Mobile to demonstrate the way in which the power of water can be harnessed to perform technical tasks.

Al Qayrawan’s Principal Mrs. Raja Al Zayani was delighted with the result, “We are very happy to hear that we won the prize as the school and children enjoyed working for the competition, it gave a great atmosphere to the school; it was quite hard for us in the beginning, but the whole experience was just great. To be honest, I didn’t expect that we were going to win – it was a surprise for all of us because all the other entries were so amazing; when we saw last year’s entries in the Eden Challenge calendar, we decided that we needed to take part this year and try to make a difference. We love gardens and take good care of ours; this is the first time that we have received a cash prize for the school and its so overwhelming because we already had plans to redesign the school’s garden – I had a whole plan in mind and just needed the funding, so this is the best gift from Riffa Views to make our school’s dream come true.”

Rounding off the honour roll was the Khawla Secondary Girls School, who were the winners in Category D for Secondary School students between 16 – 18 years; project entries in this category required the teams to design a Water Conscious Garden, where the garden design had to interact with the environment and include innovative water saving devices.

Seham Al Kooheji, Community Service Specialist at Khawla, expressed the excitement of the school, “When we first heard the news, I called everyone to the principal’s office and shared it with them, they were extremely happy …many schools called to congratulate us. This year’s competition was really hard and required a lot of information – it was a huge challenge to come up with a water conscious garden, so the girls researched through the internet and our library; then one of the girls came up with the idea of using the Riffa Views Eden Challenge logo as a base for the entry and all the hard work came together in the garden that we submitted. The girls are really happy and would like to thank Riffa Views for giving us this chance.”

All the schools are delighted to have come out on top of the competition so far, but they are all hoping to go one better and be judged the Overall 2009 Eden Challenge Winner when Chris Beardshaw, Riffa Views’ Garden & Landscapes Ambassador and Chairman of the judging panel, makes his final selection from the four proud category winners during the Riffa Views Bahrain International Garden Show (“RVBIGS”) in April.

Richard Browning, CEO of Eden Challenge organizers, Riffa Views Signature Estates, is under no illusion as to how hard that final selection will be, “The judges had a very hard time selecting the four category winners from the many wonderful entries the schools came up with, I have no doubt that Chris will find it even more difficult to select the overall winner as all four schools are worthy of the title. I am looking forward to seeing the winning entries displayed on the Eden Challenge stand at RVBIGS and congratulating them all on their great achievement; it has truly been a pleasure to support the schools once again this year with the Eden Challenge.”

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