The British Council has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Maldives, defining the scope of future British Council programmes to be delivered in the Maldives.
Country Director of British Council Sri Lanka, Gill Westaway and the Maldives Minister of State of Tourism, Arts and Culture, Mr. Thoyyib Mohamed Waheed, signed the MOU on Thursday.
“While maintaining many of our current services, particularly examinations administration and advice in studying in the UK, we have already put in place an exciting menu of projects which represent new departures in the way in which we want to work with the Maldivian people,” said Westaway.
“One is our desire to recruit three Maldivian Climate Champions who will work with us as part of an India Sri Lanka regional programme on climate change.”
Alongside the signing of the MOU, the British Council also launched its climate Cchange programme in the Maldives, a programme that has been successfully implemented for the past three years by British Council India and Sri Lanka.
One of the key areas of work in Climate Change is the global roll-out of the ‘Climate Champions’ programme. British Council currently has 70 Champions in India and five Champions in Sri Lanka working on community and grassroots level projects. The programme launched in the Maldives will select three young Maldivians as new International Climate Champions.
The British Council will also collaborate with the organisers of the world famous Hay festival in Hay, and will support the festival in the Maldives.
One of the primary drivers behind this event is to reflect Maldivian culture to the world, while demonstrating that the islands are more than sun, sea, and sand – the image it has in the eyes of many, the British Council said in a statement.
The Hay Festival is scheduled to take place from 14 – 17 October 2010 and is planned to be held annually over the next three years.
British Council Sri Lanka is also seeking to provide training to staff of the Maldives National Library, through work attachments and job shadowing in the Colombo office. This capacity building will be delivered to the staff in September 2010.
With the British Council office in Male’ set to relocate to new premises in the National Museum Building, the UK’s cultural relations organisation is firmly committed to strengthen its work in the Maldives and offer programmes in key new areas, as demonstrated by the launch of their Climate Change project.
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