More than 150 students from six schools across Sharjah will be competing in the third edition of the Ana-vation Competition, which aims to educate the youth and stimulate their participation in the global fight against cancer. The yearly competition aims to integrate students’ efforts through the use of futuristic technologies by building innovative solutions that raise awareness and help patients.

Organised by Sharjah-based civil society organisation Friends Of Cancer Patients (FOCP), the Ana-vation Competition helps students from Sharjah hone their app development skills and learn how to provide innovative solutions for the modern world, and at the same time, raise awareness between them and their families on childhood cancer.

To help prepare students for the comprehensive and engaging programming sessions, FOCP and Geek Express will provide hands-on lessons about app development before dividing them into groups of three, to develop an app that focuses on health, well-being, and early cancer detection.

The culmination of these preparations will be an award ceremony, where students will be given the opportunity to pitch their app to a jury of renowned judges, chosen by Geek Express and FOCP.

Ana, an Arabic word which means “I” in English, is a project dedicated to childhood cancer that falls under FOCP’s initiative, ‘Kashf’, that focuses on early detection of cancer. Ana seeks to raise awareness about the six common warning signs of childhood cancer and highlight the importance of early detection, as childhood cancer is the fourth most common cause of death among children under 15 years old in industrialised nations, according to the latest statistics from the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The Ana-vation Competition, which comes in collaboration with the Sharjah Private Educational Authority, Amazon.ae, and the Children’s Cancer Center in Lebanon, is a combination of the words “Ana” and “Innovation”, and is a four-month initiative that seeks to generate greater degree of involvement from the community, including its youngest members, increasing awareness about childhood cancer, and to inspire young students, doctors, researchers and scientists to dedicate themselves to identifying, treating and controlling the disease.

Schools participating in the competition, which concludes on January 24, include the American School of Creative Science, Ambassador School, ASPAM Indian International School from Sharjah City, in addition to Al Resalah American International School in Al Rahmaniya, East coast English School in Khorfakkan, and Khalifah Al Hamzah American School in Al Maddam.

It is estimated that, worldwide, more than 10 million people succumbed to cancer in 2021 and each year, 400,000 children are diagnosed with the disease. FOCP’s action-oriented strategies align with its vision for a cancer-free world. It has been continuously building on its significant achievements over the past 23 years by providing moral and financial assistance to cancer patients, raising awareness about cancer prevention, and promoting a healthy lifestyle among the UAE community.