Kyrenia Committee

Aysen Djemal

(Global Ambassador for the Medi Foundation)

We are delighted to announce Aysen; a proud Turkish-Cypriot, as its global ambassador. There is no one better suited for this vital and prestigious role. She is and has been for many years a towering and highly influential figure in the worlds of fashion, glamour, beauty and the arts. She is from London and began her career at the age of 8, studying Drama, singing, dancing, and modelling at the famous Sylvia Young Theatre School.

By her teens she had appeared in numerous adverts and TV programmes including Pepsi Cola and EastEnders. She was a concert performer for The Prince’s Trust, and after studying at the Central school of speech and drama, performed in the Edinburgh Fringe festival before setting up her own, environmental awareness-themed drama company-Happy Moon. She is a qualified a drama teacher and continues in that role today.

In tandem she began a highly successful and ongoing modeling career aged 17 and is currently both an international catwalk and commercial model, featured by such names as Bellona furniture, Cyprus Paradise travel, and Ask perfume. Aysen is a favorite with such designers as Vivian Westwood and Chalayan This work has taken her around the world.

She has hosted fashion weeks in London, Milan and Paris in February 2022, and is attending the Cannes film festival for 2022.

Aysen is married and the mother of two teenage sons, one about to embark on his career at university to become a doctor. This makes her uniquely qualified to understand the concerns and pressures on both students and the parents they leave behind-our Students’ Society have gained an invaluable ally.

As has the Foundation; whose main goal is preventing and treating addiction and mental illness. Aysen has bravely never shied away from discussing her ongoing struggles with depression-in common with many in her industry- nor battles with her self-destructive thoughts and habits. We both welcome and applaud her.

Dr. Canan Salih

(Director of Arts and culture of the Medi Foundation)

Dr Salih is a Theatre and Film writer and director. She graduated with a honours degree in Theatre from the innovative Dartington College of Arts in UK, before working as a drama teacher and community arts officer for a number of various arts organizations in and around London for 17 years (including Outreach Associate for Chats Palace, Drama teacher for Theatre Train Brentwood and Harlow, and Drama Teacher for Youth Create, Sawbridgeworth). She completed her Masters in Theatre at Rose Bruford College (graduated 2008) and a subsequent PhD in Applied Drama Ethnography at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama (CSSD) (graduated 2014), whilst working as a Youth Arts Officer for Tower Hamlets Council for 19 years, up until 2020. Alongside her work with LB Tower Hamlets youth services, Dr Salih has also written and directed numerous plays and award-winning films from her own company Arts Without Borders, UK. She has been one of the dramaturgs for A Season of Bangla Drama Festival in East London for 8 years and continues to engage in this role, as well as run workshops in creative writing and other specialized areas of performing arts for the annual festival.

Dr Salih has also taught numerous humanities courses, including film, theatre, cultural studies and ethnographic research, at higher education institutes, including CSSD, Manchester University, University of East London, and Queen Mary University of London. She taught theater for 3 years at Richmond University of American Liberal Arts in London, before taking on the role of Head of Theatre from 2016 – 2019. Dr Salih moved to the TRNC in 2020 and has been teaching undergraduate and post graduate courses at EMU as a part time lecturer since. Dr Salih specializes in applied theatre practice and issue based performing arts productions by writing and directing her own plays and films.