Their News [Archives:2008/1128/Local News]

24 charitable associations organize mass marriage

The governorate of Hadramout celebrated last week a mass marriage for 1,100 couples, sponsored by twenty four charitable associations.

The festival was launched in Mukalla, in which the grooms signed marriage contracts in the grand mosque of Mukalla. In the afternoon on the same day, the newlyweds led processions in the streets, followed by locals who performed traditional dances and also a sea parade in Khour Al-Mukalla.

In a nighttime concert attended by Hadramout's governor, prominent Saudi clerics, businessmen, and Minister of Endowment and Preaching Humoud Al-Hatar congratulated the couples and donated 5 million YR to the wedding.

Adel Al-Jueidi, chief organizer of the event, said that the aim of the mass weddings is to help virtuous youth who can't afford to get married and start a family due to financial difficulties. By assisting them financially, he stated that it would help “spread purity and chastity.”

Mass marriages are a common practice in Yemen and were initiated in 1992 by Islah Charitable Association. The sponsors bear wedding expenses like meals, gifts and sometimes negotiating with the bride's family to reduce the dowry.

YCMES opens its door to foreign students

The study abroad program at the Yemen College of Middle Eastern Studies announced that it will accept applications for its inaugural year, starting September 2008.

The program is geared for foreigners who want to study intensive Arabic and the contemporary Middle East.

The college is centrally located in Sana'a, in a residential neighborhood near the main square of the city and within walking distance of the historic old city. It will draw its Arabic language program from the Yemen Language Center, an institute with nearly twenty years of experience.

Moreover, the Program in Contemporary Middle Eastern Studies offers a wide range of university-level courses on contemporary subjects. Each semester, a select number of courses are offered as a cross-discipline reflection of the current faculty, comprised of the world's best specialists on the region, both Yemeni and non-Yemeni, most of whom have positions at leading universities. Classes will be kept small in size, seminar-style with 12-15 students, in order to maintain high academic quality. Students will also be given opportunities to work with faculty in independent research, gain field experience, perform academic internships, and do volunteer work.

The full class schedule and course offerings will be announced at a later date. Scheduled courses currently include: Comparative Politics of the Middle East; Constitutional, Legislative, and Democratic Developments of the Arab Gulf; History of Modern Arabia; History of Modern Iraq; Islamic Feminism; The Modern Muslim World; Religious Minorities: Muslims & non-Muslims, Islamic Architecture and Urbanism in Yemen; Cultural Anthropology of Yemen & the Middle East, etc.

To learn more about the program , please visit www.ycmes.org

New scheme targets high school drop-outs in Mukalla

The Awan Foundation for Development (AFD) signed last week in Mukalla an agreement with Al-Musadna Association for Health and Education to carry out the first stage of a project targeting absent students in the city of Mukalla.

Commenting on the agreement, Mr.Omear Mubarak, deputy governor, commended the efforts of the AFD for its education, health and community service projects, as “they always partner with the local authority in many programs and projects.” He went on to say that “The new project is central to a larger project designed to reduce the school drop-out rate to preserve the community from many negative phenomena.”

For his part, Adel Bahameed, executive director of the AFD, spoke briefly about the project: “It targets only drop-outs from 2003 and onwards, who received marks under 70% in secondary schools, less than the passing mark.”

The AFD has allocated more than nine million Yemeni Riyals to train four hundred students in English and computer skills, starting and running private businesses and other vocational training. A group of the targeted students will be given an international computer driving license.

Bahameed added that the so-called Youth Hope project could enable students to find decent jobs and become productive members of society. “The idea of the project focuses on the problem of students who receive low grades from secondary school and are consequently unable to enroll in universities. Those students have two choices: either to work in low-paying, laborious jobs or stay jobless.”

Active mTicker mobile's

service in Yemen

MobiComp announced on Monday that its Active mTicker service has been chosen by Hi-Tec Alaswadi for Information Technology and GSM Solutions (Hi-Tec).

MobiComp's Active mTicker enables operators to send customized information to subscribers via a scrolling 'ticker' that runs along the bottom of the screen of a mobile device when it is in idle mode. It was specifically developed to solve two problems common to the majority of mobile markets across the globe: users not clicking through to access mobile content because they don't know how to find items of interest, and operators needing to find a way to send personalized content, products, services and advertising to their users.

Hi-Tec was established in 2005 to provide innovative applications to the three mobile operators in Yemen (MTN, Sabafon, and Yemen Mobile).

Nashwan Alaswadi, Hi-Tec's CEO, said: “Mobile operators have spent the last few years debating and experimenting with ways of using high-value