Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation Book Wins Gourmand World Award

Dubai - February 23, 2010: The Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation has announced that Green Food Fun, one of the books translated and published under its ‘Tarjem’ programme won the “Best in the World Award for Translation” at the annual Gourmand World Awards which was held lately in Paris. This year’s winners were selected from applications from 136 countries.  

The Foundation issued the book under its Tarjem (translate) Programme which seeks to develop the translation process in the Arab World.  The award winning book written originally by Lisa Bullard, was translated into Arabic by Flora Majdalawi and was published by Majdalawi Masterpieces.  

Aimed at children aged 4 to 8, the book is part of a series that has been adapted to deal with cultural differences. It showcases bright photographs of food with short, rhyming, and simple nutritional facts about green food. The book also includes a glossary of the less frequent words, an index, and other sections that encourage further reading.  

Ali Al Shaali, Director of Knowledge Production at the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation said: “We are delighted to have worked with Flora who decided to translate and publish this book under our Tarjem programme. The award the book has received is a testament to the fact that the Foundation’s effort in translation is being well received and we look forward to working with more Arab publishers to enrich the Arab library with more literary works.” 

Launched in 2008, the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation’s ‘Tarjem’ translation programme aims to enrich the Arab culture with knowledge from other sources, inspire cultural dialogue with the outside world through translation, open up new doors to sources of knowledge, provide translated works that comply with the highest standards, and create a new generation of proficient translators. In addition to publishing the translated books, the Foundation commits to purchasing 1500 copies of every translated title in order to support knowledge production in the Arab World. 

The Gourmand World Awards were founded in 1995. They aim to reward and honour those who “cook with words”, help publishers with international rights to translate and distribute books and aid bookstores in finding the best books to display.  

In addition to the ‘Tarjem’ programme, the Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum Foundation has launched many programmes, including “Oktub’ programme, which aim at developing future leaders and creating a knowledge-based society by recognising, promoting and reinstating the role of culture, heritage and cross-cultural understanding in the region.