Established in 2018, the QSQ has provided more than 210 scholarships for the youth in Qatar aged between 17-to-25.
Education Above All Foundation and Qatar’s General Directorate of Endowments (Awqaf) honoured a number of scholarship recipients of Al Fakhoora’s Qatar Scholarship Programme (QSQ) during an Iftar event on Sunday.
The Qatari entities brought together 100 new scholarship recipients, 36 of its remarkable graduates, and 57 high-achievers who exhibited academic excellence during the 2023-2024 academic year.
The students’ families were also in attendance to celebrate their students’ academic achievements.
“For students, the most stressful thing is the fees, the financial stress is always there. Praise be to God, because of this scholarship, I didn’t find any financial stress. By the time I registered, [the fees] were already paid,” Osama Abdul Khalique, a scholarship recipient at the University of Doha for Science and Technology, told Doha News.
Echoing Abul Khalique, Kamran Farooq, another scholarship recipient currently studying at Qatar University, expressed his gratitude for being among the people honoured at the event.
“It was not an easy journey, especially when the family is struggling financially, it’s not easy. As time passes by, God helps you, and God provided me the opportunity to be part of the Al Fakhoora programme,” Farooq said.
Established in 2018, the QSQ has provided more than 210 scholarships for young students in Qatar aged between 17-to-25, with the goal to provide 500 scholarships by the academic year 2025-2026.
“I applied for two scholarships, thinking that if I get one I’ll be really happy because that would help my dad, who is my actual superhero. When I got the first email, I got rejected and I was devastated. When I got the second email […] it’s like the world froze for me,” Farooq told Doha News as he looked back at the time he received his scholarship.
Established in 2010, the Al Fakhoora programme aimed to honour the victims of prior Israeli bombardments of Gaza.
Its name is inspired by the Al-Fakhoura school in Jabalia, which Israel attacked on November 18, 2023, killing an estimated 200 displaced Palestinians sheltering inside the facility.
On October 10, 2023, Israel destroyed EAA’s Al-Fakhoora House, adding it to dozens of destroyed educational institutions in Gaza.
Speaking at the event in Doha, Basri Saleh, Palestine’s undersecretary of the Ministry of Education, called for the reconstruction of Gaza’s schools.
“We’re facing a terrible situation in Gaza due to the fact that the Israeli army attacked the schools and universities. Today, we’re talking about 75 percent of the educational infrastructure in Gaza totally or partially destroyed,” Saleh told Doha News.
“It’s important for the world to stand really firm against all these actions that are not only humiliating the Palestinian people but also violating the international rules,” he added.
Israel disrupted an entire academic year in Gaza, damaging at least 438 schools since the beginning of the war, according to the latest figures by Euro-Med.
