Her Highness Sheikha Jawaher bint Mohammed AlQasimi, Wife of His Highness the Ruler of Sharjah and Chairperson of NAMA Women Advancement (NAMA), has stressed that in light of the transforming needs of modern economies and societies, enabling women worldwide seamless access to scientific and technical disciplines has become a critical component in fulfilling their right to education.

Granting women fair and equal access to quality education is one of society’s most essential bids to achieve progress and stability, Her Highness Sheikha Jawaher bint Mohammed Al Qasimi, the Chairperson of NAMA, has described as the entity launches a global fund, the ‘Jawaher Fund for the Advancement of Women’s Education’, coinciding with the global observance of International Women’s Day.

Aligned with the strategic objectives of NAMA, the Fund has two categories. The first category, “International Scholarships,” focuses on offering women from developing countries the opportunity to pursue master’s degree.

The second category, ‘Research Grant Awards’, has been instituted to support research work being pursued by both male and female students as well as faculty at selected universities. These research projects must have a gender focus across science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), health, social sciences, business, and finance.

Jawaher Al Qasimi: Countless brilliant minds among us who need the right impetus

“The fund mainly focuses on young women as we believe there are countless brilliant minds amongst us who require impetus to realise their full potential. These new scholarships have been designed to support bright women across developing nations in their endeavours to pursue graduate studies. Investing in women will ultimately serve as an investment in society at large. We must understand that the only way to achieve real, sustainable and meaningful progress is by empowering women with academic knowledge, which will enable them to do well professionally and achieve real and meaningful female-male partnerships around the world,” Her Highness Sheikha Jawaher bint Mohammad Al Qasimi opined.

The Jawaher Fund for the Advancement of Women’s Education reinforces NAMA’s ongoing commitment and work to create enabling environments and provide access to vital tools and resources, which come together to assist women around the world. A significant component of the fund is its focus on promoting gender-focused research and data collection across many disciplines in order to strengthen the world’s understanding of how the dynamics of gender have a sizable impact on societies and economies.

Initial fund disbursements allocated to female students in Sharjah and Pakistan

NAMA will communicate and coordinate with educational institutions in the countries where the Fund programme is offered.

The entity has already mobilised the Fund’s initial disbursements for female researchers in partnership with the University of Sharjah under the “Women in Research” forum as well as at the National University of Sciences & Technology (NUST) in Islamabad, Pakistan, in collaboration with NUST’s trust fund. The grants for NUST’s female students have been allocated following Her Highness Sheikha Jawaher Al Qasimi’s visit to NUST in 2020 during which she met with the university officials and identified targeted strategies to fulfil students’ needs.

Under the directives of Her Highness Sheikha Jawaher bint Mohammad Al Qasimi, NAMA prioritises education as well as vocational and academic training for women across all of its programmes and initiatives.

Universities interested in the fund are encouraged to contact the NAMA team through programs@namawomen.ae or visit https://www.namawomen.ae/en/project/jawaher-fund for more information.