This blog post was published under the 2010 to 2015 Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition government

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Leigh Turner

Ambassador to Austria and UK Permanent Representative to the United Nations and other International Organisations in Vienna

Part of UK in Ukraine

14th July 2011

Ukrainians to Newcastle

You don’t get much better people-to-people links than by bringing a group of British and Ukrainian young people together to play football on the beach, explore theatre projects and check out urban regeneration and diversity.  Those were some of the results of a recent visit organised by the British Council with the Churches’ Regional Commission in the North East of England  as part of their Active Citizens Programme for a group of young people from areas including Lviv, Crimea and Dnipropetrovsk.  In return, a group of young people from the UK visited Ukraine in June 2011.

You can read more about the exchanges programme and how it highlighted UK and Ukrainian models and practices of community engagement at the Active Citizens link above.

1 comment on “Ukrainians to Newcastle”

  1. This is a great way of fostering understanding between foreign cultures. That understanding is vital for the progression of our ideas as adults, our perspectives, and the way we interact with the world.

    I’d like to see more exchanges between families and organizations from within the EU, so that we can not only improve our understanding of their language and culture, but also their perspective on the world as a whole.

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About Leigh Turner

I hope you find this blog interesting and, where appropriate, entertaining. My role in Vienna covers the relationship between Austria and the UK as well as the diverse work of…

I hope you find this blog interesting and, where appropriate, entertaining. My role in Vienna covers the relationship between Austria and the UK as well as the diverse work of the UN and other organisations; stories here will reflect that.

About me: I arrived in Vienna in August 2016 for my second posting in this wonderful city, having first served here in the mid-1980s. My previous job was as HM Consul-General and Director-General for Trade and Investment for Turkey, Central Asia and South Caucasus based in Istanbul.

Further back: I grew up in Nigeria, Exeter, Lesotho, Swaziland and Manchester before attending Cambridge University 1976-79. I worked in several government departments before joining the Foreign Office in 1983.

Keen to go to Africa and South America, I’ve had postings in Vienna (twice), Moscow, Bonn, Berlin, Kyiv and Istanbul, plus jobs in London ranging from the EU Budget to the British Overseas Territories.

2002-6 I was lucky enough to spend four years in Berlin running the house, looking after the children (born 1992 and 1994) and doing some writing and journalism.

To return to Vienna as ambassador is a privilege and a pleasure. I hope this blog reflects that.

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