Sudan’s Al Neelain University Wins Hult Prize

Sudanese university students have shown a lot of promise while participating in international events and programmes, but this one takes the cake. On 3 July 2022, Al Neelain University, a public university in Khartoum, won the Best Organising Programme in the world at the prestigious Hult Prize Programme of the Year Award in Nairobi, Kenya – up against at least 200,000 universities in 100 countries. This is the first time in the history of the Hult Prize that Africa has claimed a seat of honour for this award. 

Hult Prize is a foundation that allows young people to compete for ideas that solve the world’s most pressing issues through social entrepreneurship. This year’s challenge was about bringing the world back to work after COVID-19 by coming up with an idea to make a business that can provide 2,000 job opportunities. Hult Prize holds estimable awards yearly for contestants as well as Oncampus Programmes.

Campus director Mai Showkat and her organising team were invited to the awards along with 22 other representing teams from around the world for a spectacular three-day trip. Travelling to the heart of Nairobi, they embarked into an engrossing, rich experience with multiple activities including a safari visit, a divine Kenyan food tasting buffet and a global village event where the Sudanese team represented themselves and their culture wearing traditional clothes such as jalabiya and tobe.

On the last night of their trip, at the closing ceremony, students of Al Neelain University were announced as the winners of 2022. They shared a heart-warming group hug, overwhelmed with disbelief and pride with tears streaming down their faces. Out of 219 participating teams, Al Neelain’s organising team oversaw and laid out the required skills and techniques, and thrived with their ideas. Seeing their outstanding progress throughout the competition, they were chosen as the winners.

This is not the first Hult Prize for Al Neelain University, as the previous campus director, Hamza Orfali, won the Best Organising Programme award in Africa in August 2021.

In addition, the organising team participated in the challenge of 2020, going as far as the regionals, reaching the second stage of the competition. Now, in 2022, they went back again and have been declared worldwide winners. 

The challenges and hardship the students have faced especially in Sudan’s current political and economic state makes them a force to be reckoned with. Due to a lack of funds from entities, the team funded the programme from their own pockets. Because of the weekly protests, workshops were mostly online rather than in person presenting yet another challenge due to power outages and poor internet connection. In addition, some trainers had to forfeit last minute leaving the organising team to present the workshops themselves with no prior experience.

Moreover, a participating team from the Faculty of Medicine at Al Fashir University, a public university in Al Fashir, the capital city of North Darfur, made it to the semi finals of the Hult Prize 2022 challenge on 25 July 2022 sponsored by former US President Bill Clinton in the US. These students of Darfur have become the first to export their winning food produce, Damsora Plus, a powder of natural ingredients, which just water or milk to become a nutritious meal.

‘We started five months ago. The boarding students suffer from shortage of food and lack of time. For many, electricity is not sustainable so they depend on noodles and pasta, which is of low nutritional value. For that we integrated a nutritious meal, easy to prepare and no need for electricity. Our product is not only for students but also the soldiers, farmers and refuges,’ said the CEO of Damasora Plus, Eslam Babiker. This comes to show that Darfur is more than a place of civil conflict. It’s also a place of rich culture and resources with passionate and ambitious students. 

For more information, visit hultprize.org.

Aya Elamin is a 23-year-old medical student at Al Neelain University in Sudan. She loves to write especially poetry, loves to read, sketch and perform. She hopes to write a book one day or to inspire people with her words. She believes a creative mind is a happy one and that putting yourself into your work makes it more lovable.