* Mubarak regime figures not guilty
* EGP2 million for school children in Minya
*Italy donates 56 fire-fighting trucks to Egypt
* Virtuoso Night
Mubarak regime figures not guilty
The media office of the United Nations in Cairo sent Watani an official statement denying news circulating that former prime minister Ahmed Nazif, former agriculture ministers Youssef Wali and Amin Abaza have wasted EGP1 billion donated to Nubia by the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). It was rumoured that FAO had granted the Egyptian government more than USD1 billion to resettle the Nubians around Lake Nasser, behind the Aswan High Dam.
“FAO announces that it has nothing to do with the pre-mentioned development project or with the agreement with the Egyptian government to develop Lake Nasser in Aswan. The organisation confirms that it did not participate in any project related to Nubia and it has never signed an agreement with the Egyptian government for such a large sum,” the FAO statement read.
EGP2 million for school children in Minya
The National Company for Development and Trade – ASEC Holding in Minya, Upper Egypt granted the World Food Programme (WFP) some EGP2 million to support the project of school meals carried out by the WFP in Minya for 16,000 children and their families.
The programme helps feeding 3000 school children in 113 schools by serving them a nourishing breakfast meal, and by granting their families monthly quota of dry foods. Some 13,000 persons in the poorest areas in Minya should benefit from the project.
“Poor children lose major rights—including education, health and food; their country accordingly loses the opportunity of growing enlightened brains”, said Gian Pietro Bordignon, the representative of WFP in Egypt. The school meals, he said, give the children some 25 per cent of their daily nutritional needs.
Since poverty leads parents to take their children out of school and pudh them into the workforce, the WFP subsidises the family income by the monthly food quotas provided the children remain in school. The quota given to the families represent 20 per cent of their monthly needs of food.
Italy donates 56 fire-fighting trucks to Egypt
Italy has donated 56 fire-fighting vehicles to Egypt, worth around 11 million Euros in total, as part of Italian Development Cooperation’s “commodity aid” programme. The trucks were recently handed at the premises of the civil protection authority in the Cairo district of Nasr City, in presence of the new Italian Ambassador, Maurizio Massari and General Abu-Bakr Mohamed, Deputy to the Interior Minister.
The vehicles, seven of which are small, 46 medium sized and three with ladders reaching to over 50 metres in height, were supplied by Iveco and Brescia Antincendi International. The donation also includes spare parts, accessories, technical assistance and a three-week training course for Egyptian personnel, with one week in Italy and two in Egypt. The vehicles will be distributed over the various Egyptian governorates, especially those in remote areas.
Virtuoso Night
As part of its Grand Festival for the Japanese Pop Culture, The Japan Foundation Cairo Office presented the famous Japanese pianist; Tadashi Suenaga, in cooperation with the Cairo Opera House, to participate as a piano soloist with the Cairo Symphony Orchestra in their concert under the title of: “Virtuoso Night” or “Night Player”, and conducted by the Egyptian solo violinist Yasser al-Serafi. The concert was held on Saturday 23 February in the Main Hall of Cairo Opera at 8pm.
Tadashi Suenaga presented several exceptional performances in Germany, France, Switzerland, Austria and China, and has engaged in global activities. When he was invited to “20th and 21st Centuries Contemporary Music Concert” held at the Theater Municipal of Colmar (France), his dynamic and sensitive performance fascinated the audience by offering an absolute sense of tension, and drew loud applause.
Currently, Suenaga is teaching younger people at the four-year college and the junior college of the Showa Academia Musicae.
He studied at the Toho Gakuen School of Music, the Berlin University of the Arts, the University of Music Freiburg and the Mozarteum University of Salzburg.
Watani International
26 February 2013