HRH Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein, wife of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of UAE, Ruler of Dubai, honoured on Sunday 12 April 2009 the winners of the Princess Haya Award for Special Education created to recognize the excellence demonstrated by employees in the Special Needs sector.

Senior government officials, heads of departments, public and private sector representatives and other dignitaries were present at the awards ceremony held at the Madinat Jumeirah.

Mr. Mohammed Al Emadi, head of the Award's executive committee, emphasised the significant impact of the Award's on the special education sector and underlined its importance in promoting excellence in the work place amongst the different categories of Special Needs employees.

Faten Hani, Head of the Jury said: “We have established very clear protocols for the selection of the awards winners. The nominees, all of whom were of an exceptionally high standared, have been through a three stage provcess. The first stage identified the validity of the nomination. A short list of three was then established for each category. The final stage was to select the winner for each category. This process has taken the Jury overy 180 hours but our time was well spent as I am delighted to say that in the case of each award, the decision of the Jury was unanimous."

In a strong presence, Dubai Autism Center won seven awards: Outstanding Special Needs Educator - Sandhya Perera; Outstanding Psychologist - Sarah Al Marzooqi; Outstanding Speech Therapist - Mohammed Fteiha; Outstanding Special Education Supervisor - Christina Maria Bellos; Outstanding Administration Employee - Salim Khalfan; Outstanding Awareness Campaign for “Autism April 2008" and the award of the Employee of the Year - Mohammed Fteiha.

The Princess Haya Award for Special Education received a total of 109 nominations for the 3 main award categories The ‘Outstanding Special Educator’ category received 10 nominees while the ‘Outstanding Therapist’ category received 35 and the ‘Management Initiative’ category received 10.

The Outstanding Special Needs Project category received five nominees whereas the Management Campaign category received 10 and the Outstanding Management Category received five. Other categories which received nominations are: Outstanding Website – six; Family of Special Needs Child – nine; Special Needs Center – seven; Special Needs Supervisor – seven; Special Needs Research – five. At this time, a team of experts in special education and business management has started the process of evaluation and arbitration to announce the names of the winners in April 2009.

The Princess Haya Award for Special Education was launched on November 23rd 2008 with the aim of becoming the first of its kind in the region. It targets best practice in the Special Needs sector according to the highest international standards. The initiative also aims to encourage people working in Special Needs to excel and set higher service standards in all fields of special education.