January 2012

Dear Friend of the Global Centre

Best wishes for an exciting and successful 2012, please find attached the programme of events at the Global Centre this term*

We are delighted to greet you in this New Year. We have an exciting array of activities at the Global Centre for this term, as described in our programme. We are still in Dix’s Field, but expect to move back to Exeter Community Centre in May. We will invite you all to visit us there, for our Grand Opening as well as many more enjoyable, inspiring, thought-provoking events and activities!

2011 was an extraordinary year: the Arab Spring and the Occupy movement kept us talking all year: who knows what 2012 will hold. Certainly a programme of interesting events at the Global Centre! This term features Fairtrade Fortnight, with two guests from Northern Pakistan visiting Devon, producers of Fairtrade nuts and sun-dried fruit. Plus the return of our much loved BME networking lunches on January 31^st  - all are welcome.

Other sessions this term will take us to Central Asia, Jordan, Ethiopia, Egypt, Vietnamand the oceans. And beyond! Last term we completed our 4^th Cultural Champion course, and now welcome six new Cultural Champions to our list. On January 24^th we’re be celebrating Chinese New Year with one of them.  

In 2011, we celebrated 10 years of the Food For Thought School Linking Programme with Uganda. At the final event, in the rain in Uganda, the Ugandan Minister of Agriculture praised our programme! Recognition indeed! This year we will repeat the school gardens competition and training for Garden Teachers.  We will also work with 10 new schools to support them in setting up their food-growing gardens.

Did you know that the Global Centre is available as a space for meetings and other events? We regularly hire the space to the Exeter-Ethiopia Link, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign and the Green Group, but there are still occasional free evenings or weekends. Contact us for more information. 

As we plan for the return to Exeter Community Centre, we are trying to make ourselves more effective and efficient. We would very much appreciate it if you could spend a few minutes completing a short survey about the Global Centre by following this link: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/VF2F6KP . Thank you for your time.

* Please note that these events are for the community, if you are a teacher and would like to know more about the services and training we offer in global education, please look at our website: www.globalcentredevon.org.uk

Best wishes

Ghee Bowman (DDE Events Co-ordinator)

Sue Errington (DDE Co-ordinator)