Muscat: Endowment institutions represent a steadfast tributary to humanitarian giving, offering a model for social solidarity and enhancing contributions across various sectors. They meet the needs of disadvantaged families, ensuring them a stable and dignified life while promoting sustainable community development.
According to Oman News Agency, among these institutions is the Siraj Endowment Foundation for Education Support, a leading national institution in promoting the concept of sustainable education financing. It is built upon innovative endowment investments that ensure the continuity of financial resources and channel them towards supporting higher education and research in the Sultanate of Oman.
Mahmoud Khalfan Al Hadidi, Chief Executive Officer of Siraj Endowment Foundation, explained that the Foundation’s objectives include providing innovative and sustainable funding sources for education, supporting students from various categories (the disadvantaged, people with disabilities, high-achievers with limited income), in addition to funding research and innovation through research chairs and applied projects. This is done to promote the culture of educational endowments and raise community awareness about their impact on development.
Al Hadidi indicated that the Foundation has focused on building an integrated digital system to facilitate donation processes and increase transparency. It relies on the official digital platform dedicated to receiving support requests and managing the endowment shares, the Siraj smartphone application for quick donations and reviewing initiatives, in addition to utilizing other electronic donation platforms such as ‘Talabat’, ‘TM Done’, ‘Athar’ (Thawaan Technology), and the ‘Jood’ platform affiliated to the Ministry of Social Development.
Regarding achievements, he mentioned that the Foundation has accomplished several milestones, including the Monthly Sponsorship Program: A program aimed at assisting disadvantaged students in higher education institutions, designated to sponsor over 100 disadvantaged university students by providing monthly allowances to cover their basic needs (food, drink, transportation). Another achievement is the Qualitative Scholarships Initiative: Announcing 7 comprehensive scholarships with a monthly stipend of RO 120, at a total cost of approximately RO 161,000. This initiative targets distinguished students with limited income to become ‘Siraj Ambassadors’, providing integrated qualification including summer internships at leading national institutions to acquire skills that facilitate their employment after graduation.
In a statement to Oman News Agency (ONA), he added that the Foundation launched the ‘University Student Support’ initiative to provide knowledge books in various fields such as literature, sciences, self-development, entrepreneurship, and others, to enrich the knowledge of university students and broaden their understanding. The number of beneficiary students reached approximately 9,062.
In this context, he clarified that the Siraj Endowment Foundation has signed cooperation agreements with more than 18 private higher education institutions and 11 branches of the University of Technology and Applied Sciences. Through these agreements, it seeks to reach students to support their educational journey, employees of higher education institutions to increase awareness and spread the culture of endowments, and graduates, who form a fundamental pillar in building educational endowments worldwide.