Consummate pianist Omar Khairat is back from Kuwait and is heading with his orchestra this time to London on a charity mission dedicated to the benefit of street children and orphans in Egypt. The ceremony will be held on Friday 1 December. “I do not care where I play as much as the objective and the purpose of the ceremony,” Khairat said. “Although I used to record my music in London, it will be the first time for me to encounter music lovers in England,” he added. In Kuwait, Khairat held two concerts at Sheikh Gaber Al-Ahmad Culture Centre, mesmerising the audience with a collection of his highly sought after compositions. The concerts were received with great critical acclaim in the Arab press. Arab music critics described them as a journey of self-discovery in which the audience surely recalled their most unforgettable memories. Grand Egyptian Museum The Cultural Committee of the board of directors of the Egyptian Diplomatic Club on Saturday visited the Archaeological Restoration Centre and Grand Egyptian Museum. The tour included 150 ambassadors and foreign cultural councilors in Egypt and members of the Egyptian diplomatic corps. "The participants were keen to start the visit by standing for a minute of silence for those who lost their lives in the tragic terrorist attack on Al-Rawdah mosque in El-Arish," said Amr Al-Gweili, head of the Cultural Committee of the Diplomatic Club. It was the first collective reaction by the diplomatic community to Friday's incident which killed over 300 people. Head of the internal tourism sector at the Tourism Promotion Authority Adel Al-Masri said the authority was keen to sponsor the visit in the framework of the efforts exerted by the Ministry of Tourism to promote Egyptian tourist destinations either by highlighting diversity of the sites or focusing on new tourist attractions to restore tourist traffic. Dictus and Shoukri To mark UN Day, “The United Nations and Egypt, Achievements and Priorities” was held to celebrate 72 years of partnership. The event took place under the auspices of Minister of Foreign Affairs Sameh Shoukri and United Nations Resident Coordinator Richard Dictus. “From 2013-2016, the UN and its partners succeeded to offer direct support to 33,318,886 people or 36% of the total population. We reached 30% youth, 11% children under 5 and 20% of children at primary school age,” Dictus said. Services are delivered through various programmes including conditional income support benefiting 1.7 million families to date and which is expected to reach six million families by year's end, in addition to school meals. “Egypt's cooperation with the United Nations organisation comes in many forms to support development efforts both internationally and regionally,” said Shoukri, stressing the importance of joint work. He added, “The world today is witnessing a transformation in the development arena based on strengthening international partnerships to establish the required balance in the three dimensions of sustainable development: environmental, economic and social.” The two sides emphasised the importance of supporting Egypt's vision represented in the Development Agenda 2030 which is in line with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). A digital photo exhibition presented by Dictus showcased the achievements of UN organisations in Egypt and demonstrated the important role and wide scope of activity they cover. The grand finale was a recital of a selection of music pieces on the oud and qannun instruments which celebrated cultural wealth and diversity. The American University in Cairo For the third year in a row, The American University in Cairo (AUC) has been selected the only higher education institution outside of North America to be featured in The Princeton Review's 2017 Guide to Green Colleges. This year, The Princeton Review chose only 375 out of 629 schools surveyed to showcase in its guide the most environmentally responsible colleges, based on the schools' demonstrated commitment to the environment and sustainability. “We strongly recommend The American University in Cairo and other fine colleges in this guide to the many environmentally-minded students who seek to study and live at green colleges,” said The Princeton Review's Robert Franek, senior VP publisher. The guide describes AUC as being “at the forefront of the sustainability movement in the region” and gave the university a top green rating score based on its sustainability-related policies, practices and programmes. “This recognition demonstrates our role as a global and regional model in terms of sustainability,” said AUC's sustainability officer Yasmin Mansour. “We hope to continue implementing policies and programmes that reinforce our commitment to maintaining an environmentally friendly institution.” Among the green policies and programmes observed at AUC are carpool matching, campus shuttles, incentives to encourage employees to live close to campus, reduced parking fees for carpoolers, prohibiting idling, bicycle plans and employee telecommuting.
