The Barakat Trust endowed Abdel Hamid Sayed with a conservation grant. The purpose of this grant was to cover travelling costs for the grantee to travel to Norway to attend the prestigious 14thInternational Course on Wood Conservation Technology (ICWCT,2011) in Oslo. The conference was organised under the auspices of UNESCO. The course seeks to promote a greater cultural understanding and research in the field of wood conservation, as well as being a valuable resource for the work of individual participants in their home countries.
The course provided Abdel with a better understanding of the conceptual and practical knowledge needed to develop his work on conserving traditional and Islamic woodwork and using it to suit contemporary demand.
Overall Abdel felt the course was a very enriching experience and would definitely recommend it to others who wish to know more about wood conservation particularly in the Islamic world. In the long term he felt the most significant outcome from the course was his ability to now help expand and improve the capacity of the Egyptian Earth Construction Association, an NGO which is adopting appropriate building technologies to contemporary projects.
