CAIRO: Under its “Young Arab Voices” program, the British Council in Egypt will hold a debate on Wednesday at Cairo's Al-Sawy Cultural Wheel. Mohamed Al-Sawy, founder of Al-Sawy Cultural Wheel and head of Parliament's cultural committee, will moderate the debate between Farida El Shoubashi, writer and journalist, Fadel Soliman, Director of Bridges Foundation, Gamal Bekheet, poet, and Helmy el-Gazzar, member of Parliament on “Creativity Between Freedom of Speech and Censorship.” The debate comes as part of the Young Arab Voices (YAV) program introduced by the British Council in partnership with the Anna Lindh Foundation. “The YAV program was launched in October 2011 in Egypt, Tunisia and Jordan in response to the historic events and changes that took place in the region,” said the British Council in a statement. “The YAV aims at promoting public voice, increasing youth skills for public debate as well as providing them with platforms from diverse backgrounds.” With this debate, “Young Arab Voices” concludes its first phase during which, participants and partners have shown enthusiasm to the program. Building on the success of the launching phase, YAV will expand its second phase activities to engage more participants through the new hubs that will be physically established within the partner universities such as the University of Cairo, said the British Council. The core of the YAV program centers on a series of local, national, as well as regional debates and exchanges taking place with young people in Egypt, Jordan and Tunisia. The program is characterized by the quality of skills training for informed debate; the capacity for outreach and mobilization to rural and urban areas; and by the regional exchange dimension among participants, debate facilitators and civil society partners via online media and encounters. BM ShortURL: http://goo.gl/H3N8W Tags: British Council, Censorship, Debate, Sawy Section: Culture, Egypt, Latest News
