By Falastine Al-Remawi
RAMALLAH, July 22, 2011 (WAFA) - The U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem Thursday night in Ramallah honored the young Palestinian Acil Agha, who won the title of the best voice in the singing program ‘Ahla Sout Ghaneeha’ 2011 which is funded by the US Consulate.
The cultural Attaché at the U.S. Consulate General, Cynthia Harvey, Reem Mubarak, director of the program and the Rev. Metri al-Raheb honored and delivered the winner the first prize, which is a full scholarship in music performance provided by the Department of Music at Dar Al-kalema collage. They also honored the winner of the second place Ghassan Mesha’al and delivered him the prize, which is a production of a video clip provided by Watan satellite channel.
Harvey told WAFA, “ We are always looking for new and different ways to engage with Palestinians, obviously there is a very important government to government relationship but there is also an important people to people relationship that brings Palestinian citizens with American citizens, so that’s one piece of this, which is for us to bring Palestinians and Americans together, as music is an international language.”
She said, “Through my work as a cultural attaché I worked with lots of artistic and cultural organizations and I’m always amazed by talents I see in young Palestinians.”
She also told WAFA, “We came up with the idea for this program because we thought this is a way for us to engage with Palestinians in an area that is really interesting to them. This is our largest cultural event of the year because we see a positive outcome, as this program helped the participants to increase self confident and to develop their character and performance.”
She said, “ It doesn’t matter who wins tonight, what matter is that they have involved in a positive and constructive experience. We are proud to be part of this program.”
She hoped that the US consulate continues funding this program in the future.
Mubarak said that what distinguishes this program is not only discovering the Palestinian talents, but also and more importantly the support and care for these talents, which are provided by the concerned bodies that embrace the youth and place them on the way to fame. The project aims to consolidate the concept of art as part of the education, the basis of human development and that art increases knowledge, and thus make a change in the society.
Media and Cultural Consul at the U.S. Consulate, Frank Vnfr, said 'the Consulate is proud to support this program for the second year in a row to help the Palestinian students in various parts of the West Bank and East Jerusalem by discovering their talents and improving them.'
Vnfr praised all the partner institutions in implementing this program, which included the Education Development Center, Watan TV, Al-Quds newspaper, Dar Al-Kalima collage, and Creative advertising company and thanked them for their cooperation with the U.S. Consulate to insure the success of this program.