Donya Hassan,&nbsp;Deputy Country Director at the British Council in Egypt and Head of the Cultural Engagement Programmes was NileFM's guest On "The Big Drive" with Zeinab and Sami and she shared with us all about the British Council's inclusivity programmes, and it's cultural impact.&nbsp;
People know the British Council for its English courses, IGCSE, exams..etc mainly. What other important services does the British Council provide?&nbsp;
The British Council is known for its English teaching courses and exams like the IGCSE. But actually, we also have a department for cultural engagement.
Cultural engagement is the main department that has several very interesting Programmes fostering cultural relations, trust, and understanding. These include education, English and schools education, and arts like Culture Connects and the Creative Economy.
Through these Programmes, we work with different partners: with the government, with NGOs, and with locals.&nbsp;
Do you target specific groups with your Programmes and specific areas that you like to focus on?
One of the main themes about us and one of our main values is inclusion.
Which means we target everyone, specifically, the youth, marginalized communities, and people with disabilities.
Marginalized communities, like people not in the capital&mdash;those scattered in other governorates. People who do not have the same opportunities or privileges as others.
We try our best to ensure everyone has equal opportunities in education and culture, and we foster connections, trust, and understanding between everyone.
So, we actually target everyone, especially women and girls, who are the cornerstone.
what are some examples of the Programmes that the British Council does?
We do plenty of Programmes, but let me first talk about our School of Education SEND Programme.
SEND stands for Special Education Needs and Disabilities Inclusion.&nbsp;
The ultimate goal is always inclusion, ensuring that all students and schools meet the needs of all children in their community.
Advocacy for the inclusion of children with special needs happens through this Programme, using different approaches.
There was also a capacity-building Programme in partnership with the Ministry of Education. It targeted leaders in the national education system and public schools. UNICEF was also a partner in this campaign.
In addition, about 18,000 teachers were trained through both systems, the Ministry of Education and Al-Azhar. This was made possible through a strong partnership with Al-Azhar. Teachers were trained on how to adopt inclusive practices to better support students with special needs.
This initiative addresses multiple levels. Campaigns target parents and stakeholders, while training focuses on teachers and leadership. It aligns with the government&rsquo;s priorities, particularly the 2030 vision, which emphasizes creating an inclusive learning environment across Egypt.
Can you tell us a little about the British Council's commitment to expanding educational and economic opportunities for women and girls across Egypt and what those initiatives are?
There are mainly two initiatives, one of them is gender and the other is climate change. What this means is that in everything we do, we have to take care of inclusion in every aspect internally and externally, that the gender component is there and is accounted for in every single Programme and activity we do. So this is mainstreamed across everything.
But then we also have specific Programmes targeted at women and girls to improve their capacities, their skills, and to ensure their inclusion. One of the examples is a center, an English training center in Luxor, which we're very proud of because we are partners with Al-Azhar in this. And being in Luxor, in Upper Egypt, you know how this part of the country is kind of marginalized and not really in touch with opportunities that would be available elsewhere in the country.
So this is a center that actually has seen a lot of success and demand, and we're really proud of it, and there are always requests to expand because when you teach women and girls their English, you teach them, you give them a tool. Especially Luxor is a tourist city, so it helps a lot in that.&nbsp;
We have a project that we are doing in partnership with the GIZ, the German Development Corporation. It targets youth, so it's the Inclusive Youth Empowerment Programme, but within it, there are some activities that are targeting specifically women.&nbsp;&nbsp;
There is a Programmes that targeted visually impaired girls and taught them how to make perfume, this was also another community Programmes. Other than that, we had a Women in STEM Scholarship Scheme, where through this, we sent 20 amazing scholars abroad to the UK to have their scholarships in STEM fields. STEM is Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics.
We teach gender and disability training. We give training to youth in different communities, so they are able to provide training to their communities about how to include gender inclusivity in their work within their, you know, initiatives in whatever field they're in, and they come from different governorates all over Egypt, and 10%, around 10% of the participants are also people with disabilities and women themselves, so they are both women and people with disabilities.
Do you prefer to work alone?&nbsp;
The thing about our work is that we want to create impact, and you can only do so much alone.
We work with our partners, and this is how we can expand our work. This is how we can reach new places we haven't been before, dive really into societies, and so on.
Can you give examples of these partnerships?&nbsp;
We work with the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Culture, The Ministry of Tourism, and the Ministry of Planning.
We also work with Al-Azhar as a main partner with us, also the Ministry of Communication, and then there are civil societies, and those allow us to reach more communities and extend support to underserved areas and really give us the opportunity to make a tangible impact across them. We cannot work without them.
Then, of course, our European partners, and there are numerous partners within the art network because, in our Culture Connects Programmes we work with independent artists. We work with a lot of creatives, and entities that support those artists.
The inclusivity values and methods, are they on all your external projects?
Yeah, as I said it's our main value to be inclusive, and you will see it in everything we do.
So it's in our email, it's our interview panel, it's in the way we plan our parties, events, and everything.
We had a sign language training session, which was delivered by a very fantastic lady and it was organized by our teaching center, and it was open for all staff, of course, but teaching centers specifically because sometimes we do get clients that require people who understand sign language. So, everyone on staff, from customer service, staff from the teaching center, staff from the Programmes, everyone would attend, and it's really interesting.&nbsp;
If someone is interested in contacting the British Council for any of these programmes you provide, how can they do that?
There are various ways, they can go to our <a href="https://www.britishcouncil.org.eg/">website</a>, or through our social media channels, and they can just walk into one of our offices, we have plenty of offices.&nbsp;
We have the main one in Agouza, we have one in City Stars, we have one in Heliopolis, and we have one in Alexandria.&nbsp;&nbsp;
If you could describe the British Council in a sentence, what would that sentence be?&nbsp;
Well, I would say the British Council inspires connections and opportunities worldwide through education, culture, and arts.&nbsp;
&nbsp;

Donya Hassan, Deputy Country Director At The British Council In Egypt And Head Of The Cultural Engagement Programmes On The British Council's Inclusivity Programmes And Cultural Impact

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