Four awards for SPARK in 2022

Yannick de Pont receiving the Mother Teresa Memorial Award in Mumbai, 2022
This year, SPARK has been honoured to receive four prestigious awards for our services to youth, refugees and women. We dedicate these awards to our local partnerships that allow us to help create opportunities for young people to access education, jobs and entrepreneurship in some of the world’s most fragile and conflict-affected countries.
Employability International Impact Award 2022

SPARK was awarded the Employability International Impact Award, sponsored by the University of Sydney, during the PIEoneer Awards 2022 in London.
The PIEoneer Awards honour innovation and achievement across the whole of the global education industry. SPARK won the Employability International Impact Award for an innovative programme in Iraq that was developed during the COVID-19 pandemic, which enables refugees, IDPs and other vulnerable youth to access remote internships and work placement opportunities in national and international companies.
Accepting SPARK’s award, Firas Deeb, Programme Manager at SPARK in Iraq, collected the award: “It’s a great honour to receive this award on behalf of SPARK…We are very grateful to the award committee to recognise our efforts in supporting students, refugees, young people accessing internship opportunities and digital [remote] jobs.”
Our commitment to reaching the most vulnerable youth living in the most fragile and conflict-affected places continues. In 2023, SPARK will open new programmes in Ukraine, Afghanistan and Yemen, and continue to work closely with local partners in each region to co-design job creation programmes that are market-relevant and lead to impact for youth.
Jusoor Bridges Award 2022
The Jusoor Bridges Award is given to an individual or group who are dedicated to transforming and building a better world for the children and youth of Syria. Jusoor selected SPARK and our CEO, Yannick du Pont, to receive the Jusoor Bridges Award as an individual, leading an exceptional organisation, who has greatly supported this belief has been selected to receive this year’s bridges award.
Accepting the award virtually, Yannick du Pont said: “It’s really an honor to receive this award, particularly that it’s coming from an organisation that is truly embedded in the Syrian community, working with, from and for the Syrian community.”
“There are many aspects of Jusoor that I have been really impressed with and especially the combination of the professionality of their work with the strong link to the community, which I think is really powerful,” says Yannick.
Palestinian Prime Minister acknowledges SPARK’s services to digitalisation

During Expotech, Palestine’s largest tech event, SPARK received a plaque of appreciation from Palestinian Prime Minister, Dr. Mohammad Shtayyeh, for its role in supporting digitalisation in Palestine.
Since 2011, SPARK and its partners have trained more than 5,000 Palestinian entrepreneurs, supported the growth of 260 SMEs and enabled the creation of over 600 new jobs in the region, grown 260 SMEs in the country.
Dina Almasaeid, SPARK’s Country Manager in Palestine, accepted the plaque for SPARK’s role in supporting the digital transformation of SMEs and startups in the country and expressed her commitment to enhancing the digital skills of entrepreneurial men and women in Palestine, through SPARK’s programmes financed by the European Union, Google.org and with the support of our esteemed local partners in Palestine.
Mother Teresa Memorial Award for Social Justice 2022

Harmony Foundation, founded by Dr Abraham Mathai, each year hosts the Mother Teresa Memorial Awards for Social Justice, which acknowledge and recognise the extraordinary work of individuals or organisations who aim to promote peace, harmony and social justice. This year’s theme, ‘Compassion for Refugee Children’, saw SPARK awarded the prize for programmes supporting refugee youth throughout the Middle East, North and Sub-Saharan Africa.
SPARK’s programmes provide education, employment and entrepreneurship opportunities to the most vulnerable young people living in fragile and conflict-affected regions, including refugees and women. With our local partners we’ve supported over 14,000 higher education scholarships, trained 82,000 in entrepreneurship skills, supported 4,800 startups to launch and seen 23,800 jobs created.
During the awarding ceremony in Mumbai, SPARK’s CEO, Yannick du Pont, dedicated the prize to SPARK’s amazing local partners and especially the SPARK staff that are or have been refugees that have made our programmes so impactful.
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