Two street children projects, On the Street and Cut Short are currently on display by the Townhouse Gallery. On the Street is an exhibition of street children's paintings. These paintings were the result of artist Hoda Lutfi 's work with street children at the drop-in centre of the Egyptian Association for Societal Safety, a non-profit organisation founded by Kamal Fahmi in 1997 to improve street children's living conditions. Lutfi visited the drop-in centre for the first time in 1999. Moved by the children, she decided to teach them how to use paints and brushes. The painting sessions were held once a week for six hours with lunch breaks in the middle. The children that participated were between 12 and 19 years old. Lutfi 's painting sessions continued for the next two years during which the children produced stunning and powerful works. At that time, Lutfi and Fahmi organised several exhibitions of the children's work at the British Council, the Centre Français de Culture et de Cooperation and the Townhouse Gallery. Unfortunately, the centre was closed down in 2001 and all the paintings were lost. Shortly before this, Lutfi and publisher Sherif Boraie scanned some of the paintings. Today, these scanned images are the only remaining trace of the drop-in centre. On the opening day of the On the Street, the Townhouse Gallery also launched a book of the work, published by Boraie of Zeitouna. The proceeds from the exhibition and the sales of the book will be donated to an art fund for street children, which will continue the amazing work that was done by the Egyptian Association for Societal Safety. Photographer Hisham Labib has recently spent time with another group of street children, capturing their extraordinary lives through his lens and showing them in Cut Short exhibition. The resulting images are moving, to say the least, and as powerful as the children's own pictures. Rough, harsh and beautiful, they narrate the story of his encounter with Tata, Islam, Abeer, Mariam and Karim. Labib is a graduated architect from the School of Fine Arts, Cairo and a photographer whose previous works have been exhibited in Egypt, France and Mali. see P.17 During her short yet highly visible visit to Egypt to feature a concert at the foot of the Giza Pyramids, international pop singer Shakira seized the opportunity to see the ancient monuments. She was accompanied by Secretary- General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Zahi Hawass. Shakira had requested to meet the world- renowned Egyptologist, and most eloquent proponent of his country's heritage. Hawass subsequently showed the singing diva some of the monuments that he had discovered, such as the Osiris Well. After recounting to her the stages of building the Sphinx and the Pyramids, at the end of the tour he gave her a copy of his recent book The Valley of the Kings. The General Organisation of Culture Palaces (GOCP) organised an event in honour of the Ideal Mother at Al-Gomhouriya Theatre. Fifty-eight women from Egypt's governorates were awarded in the celebration. Among them were several public figures, including authors, actresses, activists, and politicians. These were Radwa Ashour, Zeinab Salem, Sanaa El-Beisi, Abla El-Kahlawi, Aliaa Shokri, Farida Fahmi, Layla Taher, Mary Asaad, Nadia Makram Ebeid and Nabiha Lutfi. The event was organised under the auspices of GOCP Head Ahmed Nawwar, who said, "mothers are the driving force behind every achievement in society, and so we aim to involve women in all cultural and artistic activities". The event concluded with a musical performance conducted by the Egyptian Ensemble for Arabic Music. Greek Ambassador to Egypt Panayotis Vlassopoulos held a reception at his residence, on occasion of the National Day of Greece. Among the guests were Minister of Tourism Zoheir Garana, Minister of State for Environmental Affairs Maged George, Minister of Local Development Abdel-Salam El-Mahgoub, former prime minister Abdel-Aziz Hegazi and assistant foreign minister Nehad Abdel-Latif, as well as Arab Writers Union head Mohamed Salmawy, media figure Abdallah Hassan and actresses Laila Elwi and Libliba. Our colleague at Al-Beit magazine Nahed El-Sayed had her second collection of poems published. Entitled High Heel, the anthology attempts to relay the psychological problems of women, which they face at work and home. This work follows El-Sayed 's collection of vernacular poems, published in 1998 by the General Organisation of Cultural Palaces. She is currently working on two books for children to be issued by the Egyptian- Lebanese publishing House. Competitions for young musicians from East Mediterranean countries were recently organised by the German Evangelical High School in Cairo and the German Ministry of Youth. The event, which took place at the end of March, was hosted by the German Embassy in Cairo. Starting as a regional contest, and ultimately becoming international, the competition has also become open to German youth from all countries, including Egypt. The winner of the preliminary competition that took place in Egypt will be qualified to participate in a bigger venue in Germany. The aim here is to promote German culture and music worldwide. Among the competitors were Mirhan Damir, Shahira Wassef, Dina Magdi, Miriam El-Tabbakh and Farah El-Dibani from Alexandria, Egypt; Christina and Natasha Mara from Greece and Camillo and Giovanni Bafni from Italy. The event was overseen by German Ambassador to Cairo Bernd Erbel. The Societies, Environment and Customer Protection Committee at the Heliopolis Services Development Society, presided over by Mrs Suzanne Mubarak, organised a party to celebrate the Arab Day for Orphans and Surrogate Mothers. The celebration took place at the Heliopolis Library in the presence of a number of orphaned children, who sang with pop singer Mustafa Qamar in high festive spirits. "I love seeing them so happy," Qamar said, adding that he is soon to launch an album especially for children.
