Sharjah-Sana
(The Promising Syrian Writer) With these words, the 11-year-old Selina Raafat Hamed introduces herself, after she has 15 stories, some of which have been published and others in print, in addition to a number of poems and thoughts with the encouragement and support of her family and teachers.
The child Selina, who resides in the United Arab Emirates, indicated in an interview with SANA that her love for the Arabic language and speaking it fluently helped her write short stories for children, pointing out that it was her mother who discovered her talent and the stories she told had a great impact on her love for the Arabic language, then she continued Reading and writing on her own to write her first story at the age of six.
Selina recalls her first two printed stories, “The Red Planet, Planet of Science and Knowledge” and “My Magical World,” confirming her keenness to write stories that suit her peers, simulate their dreams, and attract them to read, through different titles that children love, as she put it, including “Good and Evil” and “Supergirls.” and "The Prince and the Little Swan".
Selena says: “The best gift I always hope to get is to accompany my father to book fairs to acquire stories and novels and to develop my talent more.” I have advice and books that I should read.”
Celina, whose daughter is from the governorate of As-Suwayda, won many awards, including the Environment Prize of the Supreme Council for Motherhood in the Emirates for the short story category, and first place in each of the competitions “Transforming a story with my pen”, “My innovative story”, “The Little Storyteller” and “The Little Story”. And second place at the level of the Arab world in the International Digital and Electronic Scientific Conference for Child Creativity in the Digital Creativity Award 2021, and the title of creative writer in the “Green Fingerprint” competition for the writing category, and it was chosen along with 21 distinguished and dreamers by the UAE Pavilion during Expo “2020”.
Regarding her participation in the reading challenge held by the United Arab Emirates, Selina explained that she participated in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth season, and obtained advanced ranks at the level of the Emirate of Sharjah. And the dialogue champions challenge in the qualifiers of the Arab world.
In a language full of ambition and aspiration for more achievements, Selina confirms that she continues to hone her talent by reading and participating in various competitions, as well as interest and excellence in her studies. She dreams of becoming a famous doctor and writer at the same time, to raise the name of her country, Syria, in international forums with science and creativity, saying: “We are the future generation.” promising, and we must be hand in hand to build our precious homeland, and revive it with our bright minds, achievements and excellence.”
And the love of the homeland has a large space in Selena’s writings, as she sang it, saying: “The Seine will stay with you … and the Wow is the rose of life … and the R is the nectar of jasmine … and the O is the hand of love and tenderness … and the T is the eye of God that protects and takes care of you.”
Selena's mother, Dina Nader, stresses the importance of the role of parents in nurturing their children's talents, indicating that the many questions and inquiries that her daughter was asking and her love for books, especially colorful stories, since she was two years old, are the first indications of her talent, pointing out that she was participating with her daughter in choosing the titles of her own library books that The number reached 400 books.
She called on the children's parents to follow up on their children and provide them with what is useful through books and reading, and to stay away from electronic games, for their negative role in limiting their skills.
She said, "So far, Selena does not have any mobile phone of her own. The book is her friend, she watches TV to follow educational channels, and she uses the Internet in her studies by following us and under our supervision."
Mahran Abu Fakhr
