Alexandria
- Camp for 150 Egyptian scouts is the last event of British Council’s Young Arab Voices debating programme before its transformation into Young Meditteranean Voices.
- The Ministry of Youth and Sports praises the importance of building debating skills, respecting different viewpoints and researching subjects.
A seaside debate at a camp for 150 scouts has marked the end of the British Council’s Young Arab Voices project and its transformation into a new programme called Young Meditteranean Voices.
It was held at the end of a four-day camp dedicated to teaching debating skills which was run by the Young Arab Voices programe in partnership with the Ministry of Youth and Sport.
The seaside garden location was chosen to represent the programme’s philosophy that debating skills can be used in any setting, and to mark the programme’s transition into a project that will link up with countries from the European Union - Young Meditteranean Voices.
The camp, which ran from June 20 to June 23, is the second time for such a large gathering of scouts in Alexandria, and the first time it has been entirely dedicated to debating.
Six parallel training sessions were led by six debate trainers with two master trainers monitoring and evaluatiing – plus a further 11 co-trainers from Cairo University.
General Director of Voluntary and Scouts Programs at the Ministry of Youth and Sports, Dr Gehan Hanafy, said:
“The programme of debates has a significant and clear effect on Scouts, first in their understanding of the concept of debates and then their knowledge of the concept and how can a debate be. The impact of this was also shown in their skills debating the motions they chose.
“In addition it instills in them the concept of having different opinions, and the impartiality of passion and lack of clinging to opinion, along with educating them in terms of research and how to build a correct point of view.
“All of this is reflected in the enthusiasm of Scouts for the continuation of such a programme and their request to implement it in all governorates
“Hence, the Ministry appreciates the efforts of the British Council towards all this positive impact, which has worked to raise the level of skill performance.”
For seven years Young Arab Voices was mainly supported by the British Council through partnerships with other international entities such as the Anna Lindh Foundation, Ford Foundation and the UK’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office Arab Partnership Fund.
The British Council in partnership with Anna Lindh Foundation, which this year celebrates its 80th anniversary in Egypt, will continue its debating programmes under the name Young Meditteranean Voices – a new project supported by the European Union.
During the lifetime of the project, the project has directly involved 10,000 young people aged 18-35 in 16 different governerates.
The first events for the new project will take place in July when a group of debate trainers will be chosen to pursue the programme in 12 different Hubs across Egypt’s governerates.
The Acting Country Director for the British Council in Egypt, Alex Lambert, said: “Young Arab Voices has made a great name for itself in Egypt, but we’re excited about this new direction and the new links that it will forge with countries in Europe.”