“Makkah Award for Excellence” and launching a new “Humanitarian Character” AwardConsultant of the Custodian of the two Holy Mosques, Prince of Makkah, HRH Prince Khalid Al Faisal announced yesterday in the participating premise in Jeddah the names of the winners of the Makkah Awards for Excellence. HRH also announced launching a new award named “Makkah Award for Humanitarian Excellence”, and commented: “After the great success achieved by Makkah Award for Excellence during the previous years, and upon studying the current award categories, we decided adding a new category for humanitarian excellence.”

Prince of Makkah stated that the award is annually granted to any character that performed an exceptional achievement in any of the fields, contributing to a number of activities, programs, and initiatives related to human. Nominated character shall have performed significant achievements and initiatives in the province to be annually nominated for the award.
In the award first round, three role models won the award for their exceptional and active role during the past period, which had a positive impact on the province in specific and KSA in general. The three winners were Dr. Abdul Aziz Abdullah Al Khudairi, former Minister of Culture and Media and ex-Undersecretary of Makkah Province, Ahmed Abdul Aziz Al Hamdan, a businessman and leader of exceptional social initiatives, and Olfat Mohamed Qabani, a business woman and social activist and member of the main committee for productive families within the province.
The Award of Excellence for Hajj and Umra services was granted to Directorate of Public Security (Ministry of Interior) for the efforts of security officials in all sectors in serving visitors, and exceptional efforts exerted by officials of public security in 1436 AH. Such efforts commenced from Umra times last year, and became obvious in Ramadan last year, through traffic flow, crowd management, organizing access and exit to and from the Holy Mosque, in addition to excellence in their work, development of their tools annually. Therefore, they were worth receiving the excellence award in the services of Hajj and Umra.

In the administrative category, Permanent Committee for Settlement of Burmese Community for the significant role carried out by the committee and its positive influence on KSA in general and the province in particular, and for its contributions in addressing humanitarian issues that continued for decades. Settlement of Burmese community throughout the province is deemed a remarkable achievement having its global impact that shed light over KSA’s active role in humanitarian issues and to help integration of Muslim minority since their first arrival in 1942. So far around 125.000 resident identity cards were issued for residents of Burmese community through clear and facilitated mechanisms. The identity enables its holder to free medical treatment, studying in all academic years and to be employed in jobs. Permanent Committee for Settlement of Burmese Community therefore worth the award for administrative excellence. Economic excellence was withheld this year for incompetency of nominated works. Award of social excellence was awarded to Namaa Charity Association (ex. Welfare Warehouse in Jeddah) for its social role in serving the social needs and caring for human beings, and for contributing towards socially serving Makkah through caring for humans and mitigate the burdens of the needs and help them overcome poverty and improve their efficiency to transform man and women from dependent to independent human being. Association was also appreciated for adopting clear visions and scientific approaches according to high quality management and professional methods to employ technology and improve the level of final product and to guarantee the highest quality.
Saudi ARAMCO was rewarded the Urban Excellence Award for its designs and executive works at King Abdullah Sports City (Gawhara) in Jeddah. ARAMCO also was appreciated for designing and performing an architectural master piece in Jeddah, as King Abdullah Sports City (Gawhara) was established as a comprehensive city in accordance with the international standards and capacity reaching up to 60,000 guests. It is a modern sport city deemed a landmark at KSA level, and will continue to be one of the perfect gifts awarded from King Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz to KSA youth, therefore, awarded urban award.

Cultural Excellence was withheld for incompetency of works nominated. In Environmental Excellence, Taef Governorate Secretary was awarded for execution of Radf project in Taef and for establishing one of the largest environmental tourism projects in Taef. Radf Park occupies 565,000 m2, and includes various tourism, social, cultural, and leisure facilities; therefore was worth receiving environmental excellence.
In Scientific Excellence, Dr. Malak Abed Al Thaqafi was awarded for her excellence in medical field for her researches in various medical branches such as blood transfer, surgical pathology, and hematology. She also published researches and papers in journals. She is the first Saudi woman admitted to fellowship of neurology at Harvard University. She is the only woman in the Arab world to join American fellowship for genetics; therefore, was awarded Scientific and Technological Award.