Hany El Miniawy honored by International Union of Architects

Egyptian Fellow Hany El Miniawy was recently selected by the International Union of Architects as recipient of the 2008 Vassilis Sgoutas Prize, which recognizes architects contributing to the alleviation of poverty.

Through the construction of low-cost, environmentally friendly housing for low-income areas in Egypt, Hany transfers his knowledge and experience of building materials and techniques to youth living in impoverished areas. This provides them with employment in the short term and the capacity to replicate his work in their own communities, as the population of low-income Egypt continues to swell.

Many congratulations to Hany for his remarkable achievements and this important recognition!

Images for Life

Images for Life, a two-year community based project sponsored by Fellow Abdelfattah Abusrour’s Al Rowwad Cultural and Theatre Training Center in Bethlehem’s Aida refugee camp, aims to train Palestinian youth and adults in professional photography and video as a “powerful tool for change and a beautiful means of resistance.” The photographs and the videos (here and here) presented shed light on both the sober and joyful realities of life in the camp, as well as an unmistakable expression of hope for the future of the community.

Raising autism awareness in the Arab region

A variety of activities were presented by Fellow Maha Helali’s ADVANCE Society to commemorate Autism Awareness Month in April. Events included a roundtable, a sporting gala involving 23 community organizations and nearly 600 participants, a conference on autism organized in conjunction with Assiut University, and an art exhibit held at the Cairo Opera House. Raising visibility and encouraging discussion are fundamental to promoting social inclusion and integration of individuals on the autism spectrum, especially as awareness of autism and other disabilities has only recently begun to develop in the Arab region. In April, Maha traveled to Qatar (attending the Shafallah Center’s 3^rd Annual Forum) and Saudi Arabia, and later this month, will travel to Lebanon, to participate in international conferences on autism awareness and inclusion.

Ehaab Abdou and Nahdet El Mahrousa contribute to discourse on Egyptian youth

Fellow Ehaab Abdou and other members of his youth-focused organization, Nahdet El Mahrousa, contributed to the most recent issue of Beyond, a quarterly public policy journal of Al Ahram. Here, Ehaab discusses the potential of young people to positively impact Egyptian society, as well as key trends, challenges, and opportunities associated with their civic participation.

ADVANCE Steps Forward

ADVANCE, Fellow Maha Helali’s education and skills center for children with autism, has enjoyed a busy autumn, continuing improve the lives toof people with disabilities and making important strides towards long-term goals.

In November, ADVANCE participated in the First Regional IT Forum on IT & Disability organized by the Egyptian Ministry of Communication and presented a paper on “IT & Communication Disorders.” ADVANCE helped the Ministry to encourage active CSOs working on a wide range of disabilities to participate.

ADVANCE has also broken ground in the construction of a new campus, which will allow it to provide services even more effectively to the community it serves. And, in an effort to expand its programming to benefit people with autism living throughout Egypt, ADVANCE is reaching beyond Cairo, working with a CSO in the Delta region’s Mansoura City, in order to help it set up a center following the ADVANCE model. ADVANCE senior staff recently travelled to Mansoura to identify needs and conducted the first training for the new center’s staff on December 13.

Maha’s objective of establishing a training center for teachers of people with autism and similar disibilities is coming to fruition, thanks to a 3-year grant from Vodafone Egypt. ADVANCE has already appointed a director and office manager for the new center and is in the process of developing curricula and courses, soliciting lecturers, accumulating mailing lists for potential participants, and finding an appropriate place to set up.

 

حظى مركز الزميلة مها هلالي، ADVANCE، للتعليم واكتساب المهارات للأطفال المصابين بمرض التوحد بخريف حافل هذا العام  إستكمالاً لدوره في تحسين حياة المعاقين واتخاذ خطوات هامة نحو تحقيق أهداف طويلة الأجل.

وفي تشرين الثاني/نوفمبر، شارك المركز في المنتدى الإقليمي الأول حول تكنولوجيا المعلومات والإعاقة الذي نظمته وزارة الإتصالات المصرية وقدم ورقة عن تكنولوجيا المعلومات واضطرابات الإتصال”. وقد ساعد    ADVANCE وزارة الإتصالات على تشجيع منظمات المجتمع المدني العاملة في مجالات متعددة من الإعاقات على المشاركة.

وأخذ المركز على عاتقه الدخول في مبادرة جديدة من نوعها تتمثل في بناء حرم جامعي، الأمر الذي سيمكنه من تقديم الخدمات بمزيد من الفعالية  للمجتمع الذي يخدمه. وفي محاولة لتوسيع نطاق برامجه لمنفعة الناس الذين يعانون من مرض التوحد في جميع أنحاء مصر، حرص المركز على الوصول بخدماته إلى أبعد من القاهرة من خلال العمل مع إحدى منظمات المجتمع المدني في منطقة الدلتا وبشكل أكثر تحديداً محافظة المنصورة من أجل مساعدتها على إنشاء مركز مماثل. وسافرت قيادات فريق عمل ADVANCE  في الآونة الأخيرة إلى المنصورة لتحديد الإحتياجات وتم إجراء أول تدريب لموظفي المركز الجديد في 13 كانون الأول/ديسمبر.

يبدو أن مهمة مها وهدفها من إنشاء مركز لتدريب معلمي مرضى التوحد والإعاقات المماثلة قد بدأ يؤتي ثماره وذلك بفضل منحة مقدمة من شركة فودافون مصر لمدة 3 سنوات. وقد قامADVANCE  بالفعل بتعيين مدير ومدير مكتب للمركز الجديد ويعمل حالياً على تطوير المناهج والدورات، واختيار المحاضرين، وجمع القوائم البريدية للمشاركين المحتملين، وإيجاد مكان مناسب للإعداد.

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Fellow Sameh Seif to Be Featured in Egypt’s 2007 Human Development Report

The work of Ashoka Arab World Fellow Sameh Seif will be featured in the upcoming United Nations Development Programme’s Egypt Human Development Report (2007) in the section entitled “Sanitation at the Crossroads: What Can Civil Society Offer?” Sameh’s CSO Together for Environment and Development builds and maintains environmentally and economically sustainable sewage systems in Middle and Upper Egypt’s villages and rural areas. Sameh’s work is unique, however, for it doesn’t build the sanitation systems from textbook designs, but rather takes into consideration the context of the particular village as well as the household size and income level of the family for which the system is built. The sanitation system also accommodates Upper Egypt’s unique water table levels, which prevent the successful operation of more traditional, mainstream systems. According to the Report, Sameh’s technique is classified as “best practice” not just for its innovative design and accommodation of its primary stakeholders, but also because the project attempts to involve and engage unemployed youth as well as women, who are traditionally minimally involved in community and infrastructure planning and construction. The report has yet to be released, but the most recent Human Development Reports can be read here.

 

 

سوف يتم نشر أعمال زميل “أشوكا العالم العربي”  سامح سيف في العدد المقبل من تقرير التنمية البشرية لمصر (2007)التابع  لبرنامج الأمم المتحدة الإنمائي في القسم المعنون “الصرف الصحي في مفترق الطرق: ماذا يمكن أن يقدم المجتمع المدني؟”.  منظمة سامح المعروفة بإسم  “معاً من أجل البيئة والتنمية” تبني وتصون شبكات ونظم الصرف المستدامة بيئياً واقتصادياً في مصر العليا والوسطى في القرى والمناطق الريفية. يعد عمل سامح عمل فريد من نوعه نظراً لأنه لا يقوم ببناء شبكات الصرف الصحي من كتاب تصميمات، وإنما يأخذ في الإعتبار السياق العام والخاص لكل موقع وقرية فضلاً عن حجم الأسرة ومستوى دخل الأسرة الذي يتم بناء النظام لها. يستوعب هذا النظام مستويات المياه الفريدة لصعيد مصر، التي تحول دون انجاح النظم الأكثر تقليدية. ووفقا للتقرير، تم تصنيف تقنية سامح على أنها “افضل الممارسات” ليس فقط  لمجرد كون التصميم مبتكر، ولكن أيضا لأن المشروع يعمل على ضم وإشراك الشباب العاطلين فضلا عن النساء اللائي يعتبرن تقليديا أقل الفئات مشاركة في تخطيط المجتمع والبنية الأساسية والتشييد. التقرير لم يصدر بعد، ولكن يمكنك الإطلاع على أحدث تقارير التنمية البشرية هنا.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Computer Literacy & Broadband in Egypt

The current issue of the Egyptian magazine Business Today features an exposé on the stymied development of Internet access in sub-Saharan Africa, highlighting the statistic that only 4% of the population routinely uses the Internet, and fewer than 1% of those users have broadband access. For comparison sake, 17.3% of the Middle East’s population identify as Internet users, as does 70.2% of North American residents. In the same vein, broadband access costs less than 20 USD per month in Egypt, while the average price for sub-Saharan Africa is between 250 and 300 USD per month. Arab business leaders are beginning to address this disparity. Etislat, a mobile phone company, is installing a high-capacity 110 million USD fiber optic submarine cable system between Mombassa, Kenya and Fujairah, UAE, which will bring increased broadband access to Eastern Africa. Similarly, Egyptian computer manufacturing centers which supply Libya and Nigeria are beginning to restructure their supply chains as to better serve sub-Saharan Africa.

However, Egypt is not a complete success story either. An Alexandria University professor estimated that the country was still 94% computer illiterate, while Microsoft speculates about 10% of Egyptians routinely access the Internet either at home or in Internet cafes. Microsoft has also implemented the Home PC Initiative, which will ultimately put 10,000 computers into low-income Egyptian homes at the cost of LE 50 (less than 10 USD) a month. The spread of computer hardware, computer literacy, and broadband would not only aid in Egypt’s development and the overall technical capacity of its workforce in the increasingly global economy, but would also assist in almost all other development efforts by facilitating technology transfer and communication.

The Business Today article ends by sounding a call for social entrepreneurs to assist in the development of broadband and computer literacy, mimicking what business has already done. Will we see any social entrepreneurs step up to the plate and address this niche?

Tofulty Foundation Works to Raise Awareness of Egyptian Street Children

Recently, the United Nations released an estimate that hundreds of thousands of children, sometimes as young as four or five years old, live on Egypt’s streets in attempt to flee poverty, abuse or broken homes. The international newswire Reuters picked up on the story and interviewed Ashoka Fellow Seham Ibrahim about the crisis of sexual abuse among the street children. “Sexual abuse is ABC in the phenomenon. Not only for street girls but for the boys also,” Seham said. A 2006 Egyptian government survey showed roughly half of street girls had had sex and about 45 percent of those had been raped. Ibrahim’s CSO the Tofoulty Foundation runs a shelter and school in Helwan for Cairene street children. Read the whole Reuters story here.

 

أصدرت منظمة الأمم المتحدة مؤخراً إحصاء تقديري يذكر أن مئات الآلاف من الأطفال، أحيانا لا تتجاوز أعمارهم أربع أو خمس سنوات، يعيشون في شوارع مصر في محاولة للفرار من الفقر، وسوء المعاملة أو الأسر المفككة. وكالة الأنباء الدولية رويترز تابعت القصة وأجرت حواراً مع الزميلة    سهام إبراهيم حول قضية الإعتداء الجنسي بين أطفال الشوارع. وقد أوضحت سهام قائلة “الإعتداء الجنسي هو من أساسيات ظاهرة أطفال الشوارع ليس فقط للفتيات ولكن الأولاد أيضاً”. وقد أظهر استقصاء للحكومة المصرية عام 2006 أن ما يقرب من نصف فتيات الشوارع قد مارسن الجنس وحوالي 45% منهن قد تعرضن للإغتصاب. من الجدير بالذكر أن منظمة سهام إبراهيم (طفولتي) تدير مأوى ومدرسة في حلوان لأطفال الشوارع بالقاهرة. لقراءة قصة رويترز، إضغط هنا.

 

 

 

 

 

Habi Centre to Host Climate Conference

In the midst of the global United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) conference currently occurring in Bali, Indonesia, Fellow Mohamed Nagi and his CSO The Habi Centre for Environmental Rights will be coordinating a climate conference occurring in Alexandria, Egypt on December 8th, 2007. Mohamed is also currently sponsoring a workshop and conference on climate change in Cairo, which is running from December 5th-7th.

 

في خضم مؤتمر إطار العمل الخاص بإتفاقية الأمم المتحدة العالمية بشأن تغير المناخ (UNFCCC) ( المنعقد حاليا في بالي، أندونيسيا، سوف يقوم الزميل محمد ناجي ومنظمة المجتمع المدني التابعة له والمعروفة بإسم مركز حابي للحقوق البيئية بتنسيق مؤتمر عن المناخ في الأسكندرية (مصر) في الثامن من ديسمبر، 2007. يقوم محمد أيضا في الوقت الحاضر برعاية ورشة عمل ومؤتمر حول تغير المناخ في القاهرة يمتد من 5-7 كانون الأول/ديسمبر .

 

 

 

 

 

World AIDS Day

Yesterday’s observance of World AIDS Day was marked by experts and activists across the world calling for vigilance and increased awareness of the disease, which UNAIDS recently estimated afflicts 33 million individuals across the world. Indonesia, the Asian country with the fastest-growing HIV epidemic, chose the day to launch its first national campaign urging condom use.

Ashoka Fellow R.S. is bringing the proliferation of AIDS to the national attention of Egypt, a country which only has 8,000 people living with AIDS but also possesses a culture which avoids the topic of illness related to sexual activity, creating a high risk for a surge of HIV infection rates. To prevent the spread of HIV, R.S. has created a citizen sector organization (CSO) that arranges counseling, medical care, and legal assistance, and introduces greater awareness of the problem to the government, the Egyptian public, and existing networks of citizen organizations. Recognizing that much of Egypt’s population with AIDS were affiliated with the country’s underground sex and prostitution industry, R.S.’s organization also reaches out to sex workers, conducting legal and health awareness sessions and listening sessions, distributing condoms and encouraging sex workers to seek regular medical checkups.