Charities in Bexhill-on-Sea, in the English county of East Sussex, are to benefit from a donation of 50,000 pounds from President HH Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

The donation has been made in appreciation of the role played by the East Sussex County Council and the Bexhill-on-Sea town council as hosts for the UAE Technical Training Project – UK, which provides training in Britain for junior members of the UAE Armed Forces.

Announcing the donation during a graduation ceremony for a new batch of students in July, the Project’s Director, Colonel Hilal Al Dhaheri, said that it was “a practical embodiment of Sheikh Khalifa’s vision to promote cultural understanding, dialogue and tolerance.”

The Project, he added, has become “a fully-fledged partnership between the UAE and the UK, and the new friendships created will provide substantial momentum to the long-standing friendly relations between the two countries.”

Expressing her thanks for the donation, Mrs. Phyllida Stewart-Roberts, the Lord Lieutenant of East Sussex, (The Queen’s representative in the county), said that both East Sussex and Bexhill-on-Sea were “deeply grateful” to HH Sheikh Khalifa. His donation, she said, “has the power to change lives for the better.”

“The United Arab Emirates Technical Training Project in Bexhill brings substantial benefitstotheeconomyofthe area by way of employment and purchasing power, and in many ways the special relationship between the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom is mirrored in Bexhill,” she said.

“Friendship and respect have increasingly developed between the staff and students on the one hand and the citizens of the Town on the other, while the Technical Training Project Manager, Colonel Hareb Al Dhaheri, has become a highly regarded figureinboththeTownand the County as a whole. Bexhill is proud to have such a prestigious international training facility based within its boundaries, a pride which East Sussex is happy to endorse.”

The graduation ceremony was attended by Major General Mohammed Hilal Surour Al Ka’abi, Deputy Chief of Staff of the UAE Armed Forces, the Duke of Kent, representing the Queen, the Lord Lieutenant, the British Ambassador to the UAE, Edward Oakden, and a number of senior British officials.

Originally devised in the 1970s by General HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, the Technical Training Project began with a firstbatchof100students,withmany hundreds now having completed their studies there.