COVID-19 Challenges

The COVID-19 pandemic as declared by the World Health Organization (WHO) has not only created a global health hazard but has also caused severe “moral panic”. While COVID-19 has limited and fixed symptoms, the moral panic it has caused has many manifestations. Today, not only global affairs and various related systems are tested because of the pandemic, but our moral values too.

The Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, indicated that the declaration of COVID-19 as a pandemic was a “call for responsibility and solidarity”.

Amid this, the youth have a prominent role to play. Therefore, Maker Majlis created the COVID-19 Challenge, a series of three different challenges directly related to the pandemic.

Challenge 1: COVID-19 and the Global Moral Panic

In this challenge, applicants were asked to:

1. Prepare a two-minute (or eight slide) inspirational talk in the form of a presentation that speaks to one of the aspects of the “moral panic” caused by COVID-19.
2. Describe, elaborate and analyze the specific aspect of the moral panic they are addressing.
3. Highlight creative/innovative perspectives with longer-term suggestions with a clear call for action for the global youth.

Those who were shortlisted were invited to make an online interactive presentation in front of a jury and answer some questions. The top two winners were awarded iPad minis and the third winner was awarded a QR250 gift voucher.

See below a video for details as well as the shortlisted and winning presentations.

Winners:

1. Mouza Darwish
2. Razi Shaikh
3. Zeenath Safira

Challenge 2: In Solidarity Against COVID-19

This challenge was in collaboration with the Islamic Cooperation Youth Forum (ICYF). To learn more, click here.

Winners:

1. Category 1: Daniel Akinjise
2. Category 2: Amal Rouabhia
3. Category 3: Hamid Ait El Caid

Challenge 3: Creativity in the Time of COVID-19

In collaboration with Al Sharq Youth, applicants were asked to submit a creative piece that answered the following question:

“If you had ONE message to share with your previous self before the coronavirus pandemic spread, what would it be?”

Applicants were also asked to submit a short paragraph explaining how their piece answered the question.

Winners

1. Aysha Jamal
2. Maria Saleem
3. Abdelkarim Djennaoui

Runners Up

• Sumer Ziady
• Tamara Nasr
• Mokhallad Habib
• Adviti Naik Jana
• Yasmine Oubahi
• Asnitha Backer K
• Aya Milhem

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