First Minister welcomes Timbuktu leaders to Cardiff Bay
October 24, 2007 « Previous Page — Next Page »
First Minister Rhodri Morgan today [24 October] welcomed a special delegation from Timbuktu to Cardiff Bay.
The visitors from Timbuktu in Mali are in Wales to visit Hay on Wye, the town they have chosen to twin with. Hay on Wye beat off competition from more than 50 other UK communities to become Timbuktu’s international community partner because of its strong cultural and literary connections, following an appeal in the Independent newspaper last year.
Since the twinning announcement, Hay2Timbuktu were successful in becoming one of the five pilot projects in the new Gold Star community linking scheme, launched last week by the First Minister.
The Gold Star Communities project aims to contribute to the creation of a ‘gold Star’ framework of standards and good practice, aligned to the UN’s Millennium Development Goals on poverty reduction. The Wales pilot is being developed with the support of the UN, to produce a model for recognising and spreading quality community partnerships that address issues such as fair and just trade, climate change and the environment, children’s rights and social inclusion.
Rhodri Morgan said:
I’m pleased to welcome the delegation from Timbuktu to Cardiff Bay, so soon after the launch of the Gold Star community pilot scheme. It is yet another proof that Wales has not become inward looking and self-obsessed since devolution started in 1999. Welsh people are renowned for their internationalist outlook and their desire to help those elsewhere in the world less fortunate than us living in Wales and this new, international partnership is a great example of what we are trying to achieve through the Wales for Africa framework.
Both communities share a literary background and both are homes to world-class festivals – the Hay Festival of Literature and in Timbuktu, an annual musical extravaganza called the Festival au Desert. These appear to be great foundations on which to establish a long-lasting partnership from which both communities can reap huge benefits.
The delegation from Timbuktu includes Said Ould Mahmoud, the First Mayor of Timbuktu, Ali Ould Sidi, the Cultural Minister and Boubacar Addia Toure: President of the Twinning Association. A group from Hay on Wye will return to Timbuktu in 2008.
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