Creative writing scheme helps UAE students realise publishing dreams

The Ministry of Education and Ministry of Interior launched a creative writing programme which will publish the works of 25 public high school students.

Aisha Al Zaabi, 16, a pupil from Kalba, wrote short stories inspired by the lives of her teenage friends. Her book is titled The Secret of a Town. Jeffrey E Biteng / The National

ABU DHABI // Aspiring poet Ibrahim Abo Elkheir says the idea of having his work published was just a dream.

But with the help of a creative writing programme launched by the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Interior, the 17-year-old is now among 25 pupils from public high schools who can call themselves authors, with the books to prove it.

“At the beginning of this year, this was just a dream,” said Ibrahim, clasping his book of poems.

“I never thought that I’d be able to write a single poem. With the help of this and my teachers I was able to write about 80 stanzas. I always wanted to be a writer and this was a dream come true.”

The students and 25 public school teachers, were honoured yesterday by Sheikh Saif bin Zayed, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, Hussain Al Hammadi, Minister of Education, and other dignitaries.

Each young author autographed the first edition of their books at a signing ceremony at the Abu Dhabi International Book Fair.

The books were published after a four-month writing course in which the students and teachers took part on Saturdays since January.

More than 350 students applied for the programme, but only the most promising and talented were selected.

The course was offered as part of the Aqdar (“I can do it smartly”) initiative offered by the Ministry of Interior’s Khalifa Student Empowerment Programme.

Mr Al Hammadi said the scheme was one of several across the UAE that were organised alongside efforts to promote literacy and foster local writing talent in the Year of Reading.

“With this partnership we focused on improvement of their writing skills and supporting the imagination of the children,” he said.

“The intensive training programme gave them the skills required to think, analyse, build characters and then to put a story together.”

The ministry hopes to expand the creative writing scheme to include 100 students and teachers next year.

Aisha Al Zaabi, a 16-year-old student from Kalba, wrote short stories inspired by the lives of her teenage friends. Her book is titled The Secret of a Town.

She said she did not mind giving up her Saturdays to learn to be a better writer.

“We got lots of lectures, so they taught us the basics of being a writer or how to write a book,” said the Year 11 pupil at Jamila Buhaird.

“Then they gave us time to write, they corrected our mistakes and the most important thing was they helped us to publish this.

“I love writing and it was one of my dreams to publish a book. It was an opportunity that will open doors for me in the future.”

Roaa Essam, a 14-year-old student at Apple International School in Dubai, published a book called Stories to be Continued.

“It was so useful,” Roaa said of the writing class.

“It provided a lot of useful information, more than I expected to get. I learned how to write stories, how to imagine them and the proper way of putting a story together, like the climax and the resolution.”

Ibrahim, a Year 11 pupil at Mohammed bin Rashid School in Dubai, said his book of poems was an ode to the UAE and he hoped it could be released next month.

“It’s a collection of poems about many topics in my life – love, hate, patriotism, many things,” he said.

“I wanted to talk about my feelings and let people know and the poems are the best way to tell people.”