The British Council is pleased to announce the finalists for a prestigious award celebrating the outstanding achievements of the UK’s international alumni. They are selected by our panel of judges as best representatives for the impact of UK higher education in their chosen career path and the impact they have made for the development of Egypt.

We are proud of them!

Alumni Awards Finalists 2018

Ola Tanani

Corporate Communications Manager, British Council, Egypt

Ola has 10+ years of experience in the Communications for development field. Her experience varies from working with the UN World Food Programme regional bureau, UNDP, Millennium Development Goals, TVET based MSMEs in Upper Egypt and USAID’s economic growth sector. She trained and coached many organisations on branding, online marketing tools and media interview. Ola holds an MA in Marketing from Durham University and a BA in Advertising and Public Relations from Middlesex University in the UK.

Reaching out to teachers

Have you thought of ways to encourage teachers to get involved in CoPs? In this session, participants learnt how to identify different practices to get teachers feel enthusiastic about joining CoPs. Building on this, they started by learning how to set up a CoP and explored ways to set expectations, roles and responsibilities for a successful one. They finally discussed the options to consider before creating WhatsApp or Edmodo for professional development.

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Teacher Networking Initiative (TNI) symposium - 8 April 2021

One year on from the beginning of the pandemic and as schools in some countries reopen, we’re taking the opportunity to discuss how we can build on our experience of remote learning over the past year. We’re asking two questions: 

What does the research say about how effective remote learning for teachers is? We take a detailed look at Dr Steve Mann’s report on the impact and effectiveness of remote learning for teachers and teacher educators in MENA: Understanding the Effectiveness of Professional Development Opportunities for Teachers Delivered Remotely through an interview with the author and through responses to his research insights from teachers from Bahrain, Lebanon, and Yemen.

How practically can we support teachers who have limited or no internet connection? We listen to and discuss thoughts and examples from teachers and colleagues from the Yemen, Sudan and Iraq.

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TNI event 9 October Teachers, Learners, Parents – what’s the key to motivation?-9 October 2021

One of the key talking points in our professional lives is motivation. Our own motivation; how to keep our learners motivated; how to motivate parents to get more involved in the education of their children.

With this in mind, and to mark World Teachers’ Day, the British Council is organising an online event that brings together teachers, learners and parents to suggest and discuss some practical steps that we can take to generate, increase and sustain motivation.

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Dr. Nadia El-Awady

Nadia is a freelance science writer and editor. She has a bachelor's degree in medicine from Cairo University and a master's degree in journalism and mass communication from American University in Cairo (AUC). She was a lecturer of online journalism and science journalism at Al-Ahram Canadian University, and a director of communications with Zewail City of Science and Technology. Nadia is an avid hiker - she summitted Africa's highest mountain, Kilimanjaro. She solo-cycled 5600km across Europe.

Egyptian Diplomat Project

An initiative aiming to prepare students to represent Egypt globally and be aware of local and global connections.  The initiative focuses on the concept of local engagement and global connectedness by building the skills and academic strengths of students; starting with soft skills on communication, leadership, negotiation, and mind mapping, then moving onto building knowledge of basic concepts of Egyptian foreign relations, international organisations and research skills.

 

Key facilitation skills

‘Facilitation is the art, not of putting ideas into people’s heads, but of drawing ideas out.’ 

Many people use the terms training and facilitation for the same context, but are they different? Because understanding how to distinguish between them is quite important, in this session participants learn how to make this difference. They recognised the qualities of a good facilitator and highlighted the top 3 qualities to make a good one. Participants also explored and practiced a range of effective facilitation techniques and outlined how a good CoP meeting structure looks like. 

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Mohamed Afifi

Queen Margaret University 

Social Impact Award

Dr Mohamed is a regional reproductive health specialist in the UN. He manages health programmes in 15 Arab countries. Dr Afifi oversees a regional portfolio that includes the analysis of health policies, laws and the health workforce in more than 11 Arab countries. His studies in the UK taught him to view health as a social phenomenon, and understand the impact of social norms and traditions, and the political economy, on health. 

 

Mohamed Kamal

University of Leeds

Mohamed is a Public Health Engineer with over 5 years of expertise in environmental management, waste management, plastic pollution, and climate consulting. His experience spans projects conducted across the MENA region and Africa. He is the Director of the Greenish Foundation, a prominent non-profit organization dedicated to addressing Egypt's pressing climate and environmental issues through education, research, and advocacy. Mohamed holds a Master’s degree in water, sanitation and health engineering from the University of Leeds.

Norhan El Sakkout

University of London

Norhan is the Founder and Creative Director of the slow fashion brand Saqhoute. Coming from a family of architects, creatives and academics in Arabic and Islamic Architecture and Literature, made celebrating Egyptian culture and heritage part of her identity. Norhan’s master’s degree from the University of London was instrumental in helping her build Saqhoute. During her time in London, she worked with the renowned brand Ashley Isham in London Fashion Week, a unique opportunity to access the London fashion scene. Norhan is applying what she learned to her work alongside several initiatives to grow the sustainable fashion sector through education, collaboration and developing Egyptian handicrafts.