Resident Organisations
The ABC houses and subsidises a number of resident organisations actively involved in British-Arab relations. Current recipients of ABC support are:
The Council for Arab-British Understanding (CAABU) promotes an enlightened and positive approach to Arab-British relations by providing a forum for politicians, journalists, opinion formers and members of the public to co-operate on issues relating to the Arab world. Founded in 1967, its achievements include organising parliamentary delegations to the Arab world, engaging with the media for fair and informed reporting and reaching out to the next generation by working with young people and teachers in schools. Its mission is to influence, inform and inspire in the fields of politics, media and education in Britain.
Friends of Birzeit University (FoBZU) seeks to support education for Palestinian students at Birzeit University and to uphold their right to academic freedom. It assists Birzeit by securing grants from British and European funding agencies for key development projects. It actively supports Birzeit's Right to Education campaign by raising awareness in the UK and lobbying the British Government. It also helps to provide academic opportunities through the provision of student scholarships and a hardship fund, and facilitates educational exchange by linking Birzeit University with academic institutions in the UK to create opportunities for research.
Offscreen Education Programme is an award-winning social enterprise fostering cross-cultural dialogue between the Middle East and the UK. Offscreen is currently involved in four main activities - student expeditions taking secondary school students to and from the Middle East and UK, developing educational teaching resources for schools, sending artists from Middle Eastern backgrounds into schools to teach and inspire, and promoting contemporary Arab artists. Offscreen works in partnership with a number of organisations and sponsors including the British Council, HSBC and Adobe, and is collaborating with the Arab-British Centre on its permanent collection of contemporary Arab art.
Banipal is in independent literary magazine publishing contemporary Arab authors and poets in English translation, presenting both established and emerging Arab writers in English for the first time. The three issues a year include poems, short stories and excerpts from novels as well as author interviews, profiles and book reviews. Banipal Books was established to strengthen and expand the work of the magazine by publishing the works of these authors in book form. Banipal is also involved in live literature events that include Arab authors. The Arab-British Centre is collaborating with Banipal on the establishment of our library of modern Arab literature (BALMAL).