RIYADH, 19 October 2004 — A fourth grade Saudi student fancied visiting Britain, among his many wishes. He got his wish fulfilled by topping an essay competition that rewarded him a holiday trip for himself and family members to Britain. British Ambassador Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles announced that Saad Hasnain from King Saud School was the winner of the competition at a special function held at his residence on Sunday.
Saad Hasnain who won the first prize in the competition had beautifully written and illustrated his essay on “Why I would like to visit Britain “. The prize made Saad’s dream come true — tickets for himself and his family to visit London on British Airways, with hotel stay for one week. Saad was particularly looking forward to visiting the Lord’s cricket ground. He said: “London is just a wonderful place. I already am excited about going to London.”
The essay competition was sponsored by British Airways to take a Saudi family on holiday to London. Students from five prominent schools in Riyadh participated in the competition, which was designed to raise interest and promote understanding of Britain amongst Saudi children by asking them to write a short essay starting with “I would like to visit London because.....” The competition was open to children of all ages and submissions were received in both Arabic and English.
“My wife and I are delighted to be able to present Saad Hasnain and his family with tickets to visit London, donated by British Airways. We are very impressed by his essay and hope very much that he and his family have a wonderful visit,” the British ambassador told Arab News.
Referring to the Saudi visitors to the Kingdom, Sir Cowper-Coles said the number had risen by 30 percent. “We are proud to say that 90 percent of the applicants for visas to Britain were processed within 24 hours. All what we can say is Saudi visitors are most welcome to the United Kingdom,” the envoy added.
The visa sections of the British missions in the Kingdom issue over 43,000 visas per year. “We warmly welcome Saudi and other nationalities who want to visit the UK for business or pleasure, or who want to study there. We are committed to providing the fastest possible service to our customers,” a statement from the British Embassy said.
“British Airways would like to thank the thousands of students who entered this competition, and we very much enjoyed reading your essays,” Richard Cooke, the British Airways manager for Riyadh said. “We are delighted to be able to sponsor this competition that we believe will encourage Saudi children to get to know England and London,” he said thanking the ambassador and Lady Bridget Cowper-Coles for judging the entries and presenting the prizes.
