02.12.2008
Doha, 5 February 2008 – The Doha 2016 Youth Ambassador programme was announced by the Doha 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games Bid Committee today at a press conference held at the Al Sharq hotel in Doha.
The Youth Ambassadors’ Programme will consist of students nominated across all of Qatar’s educational institutions at the primary, secondary and university levels. Selected students will serve as official representatives of the Bid and will help build awareness/support within their schools and communities. They may be called upon as youth leaders to provide their input and ideas to shape various national campaigns on behalf of the Bid Committee.
Selected Youth Ambassadors will attend a special orientation session in the upcoming months hosted by the Bid Chairman Hassan Ali Bin Ali along with other members of the Doha 2016 Bid Committee.
“Our vision for the Games will be focused on our shared future - the world's youth,” said Hassan Ali Bin Ali. “It will engage and inspire them so that the youth across Qatar will gain a better understanding of the world and youth around the globe can ascertain true insight into Qatar’s culture and hospitality. Developing our young people as leaders and role models for Qatar is a mission and a passion we all share.”
The Amna Bint Wahab Independent Secondary School has set a leading example amongst schools at a local level within Qatar; incorporating several aspects of the Olympic movement in the school’s curriculum. For example, children taking physical education classes are already learning about the various Olympic disciplines. In science/engineering classes, students are using Doha 2016 for their projects. In art classes, students are using themes from the Olympic and Paralympic Games in their assignments.
Hessa Ahmed Hamad Al-Marawani, Principal of the Amna Bint Wahab Secondary School, expressed her support for the Youth Ambassadors’ Programme.
“It is the young people living in Qatar today who will grow up to be the Olympians in the Games of 2016. It’s fantastic that this new programme will offer them an opportunity to participate officially in the Bid to host the Olympic and Paralympic Games.”
Doha is aiming to host the 2016 Olympic and Paralympic Games, bringing them to the Arab-speaking world for the first time, embracing millions of new hearts and minds and serving the cause of understanding and reconciliation at a unique moment in world history. This historic opportunity will further the goals of Olympism allowing the Olympic Movement to serve as a means of understanding for the people of the world.
“Leveraging our youth through the Youth Ambassadors Programme will enable us to unleash the power of the Olympic Movement and sport to create understanding, hope and change that could unite the entire region with the rest of the world,” said Bid Chairman Hassan Ali Bin Ali. “We encourage all youth to step forward and help us bring the Olympic and Paralympic Games to Doha in 2016.”