Kadi bint Musaffar Al Khathaam, the Saudi winner of the 2024 Arab Reading Challenge organized by the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives Foundation in the UAE, talked to the Saudi Press Agency's reporter about her trajectory, from the love for reading to participating, and winning, this prestigious competition. Al Khathaam attributed her success to the unwavering support received from her parents and teachers in elementary school, which were instrumental to nurturing her talent. Having amassed a collection of over 100 age-appropriate books on diverse subjects, Al Khathaam entered the competition well prepared. The Ministry of Education highlighted her achievement, which is all the more laudable as it came after a fierce competition that saw more than 28 million students from over 229,000 schools in 50 nations compete, overseen by a cohort of 154,000 supervisors. The Arab Reading Challenge aims to promote Arabic reading, strengthen national and Arab identity, encourage creative minds, improve Arabic language curricula, and highlight the importance of reading among students. Competing are pre-college students from all Arab countries. Participants progress through stages that include reading several books and summarizing them, until the final round, held annually in the UAE. Source: Saudi Press Agency