KUWAIT: Over the past 50 years, the Kuwait Science Club has proved the rightness of the vision that it launched when it was founded, which is to spread scientific culture in society, enhance the level of knowledge of its members, and create the appropriate environment to unleash their diverse energies and creativity. With the Science Club celebrating the golden jubilee of its establishment on Sunday, this cultural edifice is taking a new step in achieving its goals aimed at embracing the energies of young people and motivating them to scientific research and innovation and pushing the comprehensive development process in the country.

On August 11, 1974, the club was established, which was then a pioneering Kuwaiti initiative in the field of scientific culture. It was launched by a number of Kuwaiti pioneers who believed in the importance of science, building a society, the role of knowledge in promoting youth and culture, and the need for scientific centers.

Since its establishment, the Science Club has been affiliated with the Ministry of Social Affairs and is managed by an independent board of directors consisting of nine people who are elected periodically. At the launch of the club, it announced its goals of contributing to the dissemination of scientific information among the society’s groups, working to increase the scientific level in various disciplines, creating and caring for the appropriate scientific environment, and documenting and promoting their religious, ethical, educational, and national values.

The objectives of the club are also to contribute to the discovery of the inclinations of the members and to guide them properly, strengthen the relationship between the club and other local, Arab, and international science clubs and institutions, develop the scientific trend among its members, and fill their free time with useful things.

The Science Club plays a prominent role in training young people to practice scientific hobbies and offers its members many activities such as camps, forums, seminars, lectures, competitions, exhibitions, and scientific trips. The club contributes to training young people on how to coexist with machines and tools, focusing on business, skills, and scientific arts.

Believing in the importance of the role of the Kuwaiti girl and the need to take care of her from the scientific and knowledge aspects, the club established, in 1986, a special department for girls to meet the need and desire of a Kuwaiti girl to have an edifice where she practices her hobbies and invests her free time to benefit and open new horizons for creativity and innovation.

Over the past five decades, the club’s objectives and activities have evolved based on the keenness of its successive administrations to enhance its role in society, diversify its contributions locally, regionally, and globally, and keep abreast of scientific and technical developments in the field. The most important are the current activities of the club “International Exhibition of Inventions in the Middle East,” which launched its first edition in 2007 and has assumed a high position on the map of international invention exhibitions, reflecting the leading role of Kuwait in supporting scientists and science at the Middle East level.

The club has been organizing the “Kuwait Science and Engineering Competition” since 2012, which is considered the largest scientific competition in Kuwait for pre-university students and comes as the culmination of the club’s vision and strategy in activating the national program to sponsor and support young researchers and innovators.

This competition is considered a qualification for the INTEL International Science and Engineering competition, which is held annually in the United States and targets students from the ninth to twelfth grades who are from the age group 14-18 years. In August 2013, the club’s astronomical museum, which contains about 400 astronomical objects, was opened through the voluntary efforts of members in confirmation of its orientation to support Kuwaiti youth.

Over the past decades, the club has signed agreements with many government agencies, associations, and regional and international organizations to open new horizons of cooperation in the science fields. The members of the club have recorded many achievements in the field of inventions, obtained advanced positions in regional and international competitions, and raised Kuwait’s flag high in a number of scientific forums in which they participated. — KUNA