Dubai, 14th January 2018:  Global Village, the region’s first and largest multi-cultural festival park and the region's key family destination for culture, shopping and entertainment, hosted the awards ceremony for the winners of one of the UAE’s largest ever community initiatives, the Victory Project.

The Victory Project is a Global Village community initiative, specifically designed to instill patriotism among the students of the UAE and generated a tremendous response. It registered the participation of 15,000 students from 111 schools from across the UAE. They were challenged to creatively decorate and color ceramic sculptures shaped as the three-fingered UAE victory salute and more than 3,000 sculptures were submitted.

At the ceremony, Ahmad AlMarri, Director of Operations at Global Village presented the awards to students of the winning schools. Gems Winchester School – 1st Place, Asma Bint Al Nouman, 2nd Place, and Al Hegra School, 3rd Place. The three winning works received a prize of AED 100,000, awarded to the schools for the development of the arts department.

Students who created the 10 most beautiful templates also received a collection of Global Village Memorial Gifts. All students participating in the initiative were presented with certificates of appreciation in addition to a ticket to the park.

Shazia Rehman, Head of Department of Art at GEMS Winchester School, the first-place winner said: “This is our second year to participate in Global Village community initiatives. We participated with more than 600 students from the age of 3 to 9 years in Victory Project where we had over 290 sculptures were painted. It was a pleasure to see students coming up with such creative pieces of arts and we look forward to take place in future initiatives of Global Village.” 

A special jury evaluated the sculptures and selected the three most beautiful works of art, in accordance with the criteria of linking the idea, and keeping in mind the aesthetics of the presentation. 

Karen Dsouza, Student at GEMS Winchester School the first-place winner said: “The statue represents unity and the future of UAE where the three fingers of the victory signs have Expo2020, Vision 2021 and Emirates Mars Mission 2050. We also colored that base with more than 100 flags painted around and people from different nationalities holding hands to show that in UAE everybody lives in Peace together” 

Global Village launched the Victory Project community initiative in early October 2017 to involve school students and showcase their artistic talents. The initiative asked students for their artistic and creative expression on ceramic tiles designed in the form of the UAE’s iconic victory salute. Each sculpture was created by a group of 5 students in ways and colors inspired by the values of the UAE National Day.

Commenting on the awarding of Victory Project winners, Ahmad AlMarri, Director of Operations at Global Village said: 'We are very pleased with the response and involvement from schools and students from across the UAE. This community initiative brought out the artistic talent of students and we are impressed with their creativity. Global Village always strive to host such initiatives meant to engage with different communities in the UAE and especially the future generations.

Our current season sees a number of community driven initiatives with the introduction of the highly successful Talent Stage and our community outreach programs that takes Global Village outside its geographical boundaries and spread happiness around UAE.'

Global Village continues welcoming its guests in Season 22 until the 7th of April 2018 with a bouquet of mega festivals and celebrations from around the word. The park welcomes its guests daily during the season from 4pm until 12am Saturday to Wednesday and until 1am on Thursday, Friday and public holidays with entry ticket price of AED 15 only.