16/07/2010
Scottish Parliament Presiding Officer Alex Fergusson MSP is visiting Falkirk High School today to speak to youngsters about friendships they have begun with children in Malawi.
He will hear about the range of work going on in the Falkirk area to help support and fundraise for disadvantaged youngsters in Malawi – dubbed the ‘warm heart of Africa’ due to the friendliness of its people.
Falkirk High School has been twinned with Bandawe Girls Secondary School in Malawi for the last three years. Mr Fergusson will meet pupils who have shared letters and gifts with children in the African country.
Mr Fergusson will meet teacher Mariot Dallas, the grand-daughter of Mamie Martin, whose family and friends established a charity in her honour to give financial aid to help educate Malawian girls at secondary school.
The Presiding Officer will meet Mrs Dallas and a number of pupils involved in the twinning relationship with the Malawi school. He will also meet parents who hosted girls from the African school when they visited Scotland in November 2009.
Young people from Scout groups in Falkirk will also meet the Presiding Officer to discuss their efforts to raise money for Scouts in Malawi. They will also talk about their plans to travel to Malawi next year to meet their African counterparts. Staff from Forth Valley, one of nine Scottish colleges involved in the Scotland-Malawi Project, will also attend the event.
Mr Fergusson will also speak to members of various Falkirk churches who worked together on a project to ship unwanted resources – everything from chairs and desks to football strips and sewing machines – from Falkirk schools to Malawi. He will also hear about their upcoming project to raise money to provide a feeding station for orphans in Malawi.
The Presiding Officer said: “The Scottish Parliament has been working with the Malawian National Assembly for the last five years to deepen the links between our two legislatures and contribute to the further strengthening of parliamentary democracy in Malawi.
“It will be very interesting to hear about other exciting and innovative initiatives being undertaken by Scots from a range of backgrounds to help less fortunate people in Malawi.”
Mr Fergusson will later visit the site of a new eco park where two giant equine sculptures and a vast parkland will be built on disused ground near Falkirk.
He will meet staff involved in creating the Helix project which aims to transform the 300-hectare site between Grangemouth and Falkirk. Part of the My Future's in Falkirk scheme, the project aims to create more than 4,000 new jobs and generate £50 million a year for the local economy by 2012. It will involve planting 750,000 new trees and creating 34kms of paths and cycle tracks.
The Presiding Officer will be shown display boards for the project and see models of equine sculptures, known as kelpies. He will also meet staff who will be involved in selecting artists for another public artwork for the site - the Abbotshaugh Sentinel, an earthwork which will utilise excavated material.
Mr Fergusson will then visit volunteers at Radio Royal, based at Falkirk and District Infirmary. He will be interviewed about some of his favourite music – and he will reveal why the Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Dougie MacLean are among his top tracks.
Background:
The Scottish Parliament has been working with the Malawian Assembly to establish links and share ideas and ways of working for the last five years.
In April the Scottish Parliament Malawi Pairing programme was organised by the Scotland Branch of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA). The programme aims to build up firm bonds between the 10 sets of ‘pairs’, with politicians exchanging information about their parliamentary role and local community electronically via telephone, computer and video link.
The CPA consists of the national, provincial, state and territorial parliaments and legislatures of the countries of the Commonwealth.
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