Events Archive
Alumni seek closer ties with U.S.
Former participants of U.S. Government-sponsored educational and cultural exchange programs are hoping that an event organized in their honor by the U.S. Embassy’s Public Affairs Section June 27 will be the first step toward the creation of an association of Sudanese alumni.
Approximately 75 alumni, including participants in Fulbright, Humphrey, International Visitor and Leadership Program, and US Agency for International Development exchange programs, attended the event. The guests included former member of Sudan’s Head of State Council (and International Visitor) Merghani El-Nasri, former Foreign Minister (and Fulbright Fellow) Mansur Khalid, and former Finance Minister (and International Visitor) Ibrahim Moneim Mansur.
The U.S. Charge d’Affaires in Sudan, Alberto Fernandez, expressed the hope that the U.S. Government would resume Fulbright and Humphrey programs in the future, noting that these are tools for dialogue and the exchange of ideas. Embassy Public Affairs Officer Joel Maybury encouraged the alumni, who are believed to number between 1,000 and 1,500, to form an alumni association.
Several of the alumni spoke about their rewarding experiences as scholars, students, or visitors in the United States, and urged the U.S. Embassy to reopen a facility similar to the American Cultural Center that was so popular to the Sudanese before it was closed more than a decade ago.