Child Development Programme News

Palestine Connect has faced many challenges this year following the latest conflict in Gaza and ongoing economic sanctions.  Despite this, its two computer centres in Rafah and Bureij, funded by the Said Foundation's Child Development Programme, have continued to increase the number of children benefiting from structured computer courses. Over the past year around 1300 children attended the introductory course and over 3000 participated in advanced courses. The centres are now both fully accessible to people with disabilities and free transport is provided for those who would otherwise be unable to visit the centres.

Drawing Competition 2009

We have recently sent out the entry call for our annual Drawing Competition. Project partners in the Middle East are invited to send drawings to the Foundation's London office. The winning design will be used as the Foundation's seasonal greetings card, and several prizes are also awarded.

Meanwhile, last year's winners have been spending their prize money on a wide variety of things. The First Prize winner, Ghazzala (Syria), spent hers mainly on clothes. Walaa (Gaza), pictured with her drawing, was the Third Prize winner and she bought art supplies and jewellery.

Arab Culture Programme

Artists in Schools Celebration

The Foundation has been supporting the British Museum's Artists in Schools project, part of its Arab World Education Programme, since 2006.  Phase 5 of the project, involving four artist residencies in secondary schools across London, took place in June-July and culminated in a final celebration at the museum.
Artwork from three schools was on display, and the fourth put on a public drama performance in the museum’s Great Hall (pictured). Pupils from each school, accompanied by the artist who had been teaching them, also explained how the activities had helped to change their perceptions of the Arab world.

V&A Celebration

In our summer e-newsletter we told you about the annual Family Festival of Arab Culture, part of the Victoria and Albert Museum's Arab World Family Learning Programme, supported by the Foundation.  About 3000 people attended this high-profile event on 2nd August, celebrating dance, music, theatre and storytelling from the region.  The Palestinian dabke dancing (pictured) was a particular success!

New scholars 2009/10

The students benefiting from Said Foundation Further Education Programme scholarships this academic year are:

Manar Al As'ad (Jordan) – MSc Pharmaceutical Technology, King’s College London; Ahmed Al Hourani (Syria) – MSc Civil Engineering, Southampton; Yazan Al Khalili (Palestine) – MA Research Architecture, Goldsmiths; Mustafa Alomari (Iraq) – MSc Clinical Pharmacy, School of Pharmacy; Tammuz Al Raheb (Syria) – MSc Banking and Finance, Essex; Intima’ Al Rimawi (Palestine) – MSc Advanced Nursing, Nottingham; Manal Awad (Palestine) – MA Theatre Directing, RADA; Maisaa Bashir (Jordan) – MSc Medical Imaging, Leeds; Roba Beydoun (Lebanon) – MA Development Studies, LSE; Anmar Darwish (Syria) – PGDip Water Resources Technology, Birmingham; Mira El Ghaziri (Lebanon) – MSc Human Nutrition, Glasgow; Mouna Kekhia (Syria) – LLM International Law, SOAS; Yasmeen Fanari (Syria) – MA Illustration and Animation, Kingston; Ghada Hamad (Jordan) – MRes Clinical Psychology, Birmingham; Deema Jarrar (Jordan) – MA ICT and Education, Leeds; Malak Khaled (Lebanon) – MSc Education, Oxford; Rania Lafi (Jordan) - MSc Health Care Policy, Birmingham; Loubaba Mamluk (Syria) – MSc Human Nutrition, Glasgow; Razan Nassar (Jordan) - MSc International Finance and Economic Policy, Glasgow; Bayan Shubib (Palestine) – MA Acting, Essex; Roba Sleiman (Lebanon) – MA Management (Health and Social Care), Oxford Brookes.