ABU DHABI // Sara Ahmed Nabih wasn’t about to let the fact that she uses a wheelchair, has limited use of her hands or difficulty speaking get in the way of a good education.
The 16-year-old Aishah Bint Abu Bakr Al Siddique School graduate was one of six special-education pupils to score among the highest grades in the country in the annual Grade 12 final examination, placing her among 150 who were honoured at the Best Achievers Awards ceremony on Monday.
The ceremony was jointly hosted by the Ministry of Education, the Abu Dhabi Education Council and the Ministry of Presidential Affairs.
The public school pupils had to earn a mark of at least 98 per cent in the year-end examination to be among the country’s best. Special-needs pupils who achieved a score of 95 per cent or higher in the Grade 12 examination also made the cut.
Each pupil will receive a grant of Dh20,000 as a token of the Government’s appreciation for their hard work and commitment to the country, said Mohammed Salem Al Dhaheri, Adec’s executive director of school operations. Abu Dhabi University has also offered full scholarships to 20 of the pupils.
But for Sara, the prospect of banking thousands of dirhams as a reward for her academic accomplishments wasn’t what motivated her to be among the best.
She was inspired by her older brother, Mahmoud Nabih who, like her, was born with Friedreich’s Ataxia, a degenerative neuromuscular disorder that affects the nervous system. He died last year aged 25, and was never able to study beyond high school.
Sara said: “I want to continue my studies because my brother never got to complete his studies. He did not finish. He did not go to college because they told him in college nobody will help him and he must write himself, but he could not write. And he could not see good.”
Sara still has her vision and, with some assistance from her family, plans to pursue media studies at one of the local universities.
“Sara, she feels that she can, she can do this and she can complete,” said her younger sister, Shaima, 15. “She tries hard and my mum helps her and her friends, at home and at school, with her studies and everything.”
Sara’s father, Ahmed Mohammad Nabih, said he was very proud of his daughter. “I’m very happy, I’m happy that she was sick and she betters the average, while the people who walk and write, they can’t do this,” said Mr Mohammad, an Egyptian who lives in Abu Dhabi with his wife and three daughters.
“She wants to feel like she is the same as anyone – the same as any person who can walk. She feels that she can do everything. She says, ‘I’m sick, but I can make anything, same as you’. ”
When she went on stage to receive her award from Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Presidential Affairs and Deputy Chairman of Adec, Sara said she was nervous, but it didn’t stop her from quickly raising an important issue with the minister.
“She talked with him, she said to him that she want to complete her studies and try to travel in any country to help her condition, that she needs his help,” said Shaima. “He said to her, ‘inshallah’.”
rpennington@thenational.ae
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
THE DETAILS
Kaala
Dir: Pa. Ranjith
Starring: Rajinikanth, Huma Qureshi, Easwari Rao, Nana Patekar
Rating: 1.5/5
THE BIO
Ms Davison came to Dubai from Kerala after her marriage in 1996 when she was 21-years-old
Since 2001, Ms Davison has worked at many affordable schools such as Our Own English High School in Sharjah, and The Apple International School and Amled School in Dubai
Favourite Book: The Alchemist
Favourite quote: Failing to prepare is preparing to fail
Favourite place to Travel to: Vienna
Favourite cuisine: Italian food
Favourite Movie : Scent of a Woman
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
The specs
Engine: Four electric motors, one at each wheel
Power: 579hp
Torque: 859Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh825,900
On sale: Now
Founders: Abdulmajeed Alsukhan, Turki Bin Zarah and Abdulmohsen Albabtain.
Based: Riyadh
Offices: UAE, Vietnam and Germany
Founded: September, 2020
Number of employees: 70
Sector: FinTech, online payment solutions
Funding to date: $116m in two funding rounds
Investors: Checkout.com, Impact46, Vision Ventures, Wealth Well, Seedra, Khwarizmi, Hala Ventures, Nama Ventures and family offices
Skewed figures
In the village of Mevagissey in southwest England the housing stock has doubled in the last century while the number of residents is half the historic high. The village's Neighbourhood Development Plan states that 26% of homes are holiday retreats. Prices are high, averaging around £300,000, £50,000 more than the Cornish average of £250,000. The local average wage is £15,458.
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
Unresolved crisis
Russia and Ukraine have been locked in a bitter conflict since 2014, when Ukraine’s Kremlin-friendly president was ousted, Moscow annexed Crimea and then backed a separatist insurgency in the east.
Fighting between the Russia-backed rebels and Ukrainian forces has killed more than 14,000 people. In 2015, France and Germany helped broker a peace deal, known as the Minsk agreements, that ended large-scale hostilities but failed to bring a political settlement of the conflict.
The Kremlin has repeatedly accused Kiev of sabotaging the deal, and Ukrainian officials in recent weeks said that implementing it in full would hurt Ukraine.
Women’s World T20, Asia Qualifier
UAE results
Beat China by 16 runs
Lost to Thailand by 10 wickets
Beat Nepal by five runs
Beat Hong Kong by eight wickets
Beat Malaysia by 34 runs
Standings (P, W, l, NR, points)
1. Thailand 5 4 0 1 9
2. UAE 5 4 1 0 8
3. Nepal 5 2 1 2 6
4. Hong Kong 5 2 2 1 5
5. Malaysia 5 1 4 0 2
6. China 5 0 5 0 0
Final
Thailand v UAE, Monday, 7am
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
