By Nawab Khan
BRUSSELS, Nov 17 (KUNA) -- One of Belgium's leading universities, the Free University of Brussels (VUB), expressed its appreciation and gratitude to Kuwait for its support to its Arabic language programme.
This followed after Kuwait's Ambassador to the European Union, Belgium, Luxembourg and NATO Jasem Al-Budaiwi handed the Vice Rector for International Relations at the VUB, Professor Romsin Meeusen, a donation of 15,000 euro (USD 17,000) to support the Programme at a reception held on Friday evening.
"We thank the VUB for running this very important programme of teaching Arabic language, and we are proud to support them in this noble mission," said Al Budaiwi speaking at the reception.
"Language forms an essential part of a human being's identity which leads to better adaptation and integration in any society. Opening our horizons to other societies and cultures is key to build stronger communities." he said.
Al-Budaiwi stressed on the importance of Arabic as a language of the Quran and of great poets, thinkers and scholars not only in the Arab region but around the world. "We are doing this for the first time but I assure you that we will continue to support you," added the Kuwaiti envoy.
On his part, Professor Meeusen said " the teachers involved in this project are refugees with a teaching background and have a tremendous amount of experience." "Keeping them on requires the project to be sustainable from a financial point of view.
The VUB Foundation has been active in this regard and we are grateful for donations such as this one from the Embassy of the State of Kuwait as it will keep the project running," he noted.
"I hope that we can continue to collaborate with you in the future intensively as we are here for the people," added Professor Meeusen.
Sami Azar, the coordinator of the project , told KUNA that the programme started in October 2016 with 164 children and has continued with 300 students now and with six teachers.
"Our maximum capacity is 300 children and we have another 300 children on the waiting list," he said.
Besides children from Arab background , this year children from total European background also enrolled to learn Arabic , said Azar.
The project has four centres in Brussels and every centre has five classrooms with 15 children. Classes are held on weekends and Wednesday afternoons.
The reception held at the VUB, was attended by some of the teachers of the programme who shared their experience in joining such a programme.
Teacher Halla Aboud said she teaches children between 8 and 9 years.
"It is not easy to give lesson to children in Arabic as their second language" she told KUNA and thanked Kuwait for this assistance.
Another teacher Roula Ibrahim said this help from Kuwait is great and valuable because we need such assistance to continue our project to preserve our mother tounge.
"We thank the Kuwait embassy and the state of Kuwait for their support to this project," she said.
Professor Caroline Pauwels, rector of international relations in VUB, sent a letter to Al Budaiwi expressing her sincere thanks on behalf of the university and the programme for "your kind donation." "I truly appreciate your enthusiasm for our project and we are grateful for the kind donation you made," said the letter. (end) nk.mb