El MahrousaAbout Nahdet El Mahrousa

Nahdet El Mahrousa (NM), in Arabic meaning the Renaissance of Egypt, is an Egyptian youth-led non-governmental organization (NGO), established in November 2003 and registered with the Min-istry of Social Solidarity. NM seeks to make a positive and lasting impact on Egypt’s cultural, economic and social development through activating and engaging Egyptian youth in the country’s development, public work and decision-making arenas. NM achieves those goals through building a strong sustainable orga-nization whose core program “Incubator of Innovative Social Enterprises” would act as a vehicle for social innovation. NM currently incubates several active projects in the areas of youth development, arts and culture development, health services, the environment, linking education to employment, promoting the culture of research and development and preparing emerging young leaders and development practitioners. The NM incubator addresses a wide community of youth, students, and other beneficiaries throughout the country.

NM targets resourceful and educated young Egyptian profession-als and empowers them through its Incubator of Innovative Social Enterprises. NM members also engage in a lively intellectual forum, both on-line as well as through a lecture series (Salon El Mahrousa), where they can share resources, ideas, information, and opinions about development practices.

Inside Akhbar El MahrousaThe Career Entrepreneurship & Development O�ce organizes its �rst Employment Fair in Cairo University.More on CEDO on Page 2

Namaa’s Initiative for Sustainable Devleopment launched ‘Namaa Knowledge Sharing Campaign’.More on Namaa on Page 5

The Young Innovators’ Awards Program changes the lives of more young Egyptian scientists and celebrates their success.More on the YIA program on Page 5

The Misriyati team held their Misriyatina workshop to explore the identities and values of Egyptians.More on Misriyati on page 5

Nahdet El Mahrousa and YAHOO! follow the success stories of their nine winning projects and raising the bar for young entrepreneurs everywhere.More on the Social Innovation Starts With YOU Program on Pages 6 & 7

NM’s Green Arm pulls up its sleeves with a big BANG!More on NM’s Green Arm on Page 8

Nahdet El Mahrousa announces its new partnerships helping it on the path of Egypt’s social and economic development.More on NM’s Partnerships on Page 3

Three new social enterprises have joined Nahdet El Mahrousa’s incubator!More on the newly incubated social enterprises on Page 4

Salon El Mahrousa’s interactove sessions have been very active lately!More on Salon El Mahrousa on Page 9

Nahdet El Mahrousa bids farewell to those who left the o�ce and welcomes the new sta� on board!More on the team’s updates on Pages 10 & 11

Akhbar El Mahrousa is a non-periodic newsletter issued by Nahdet El Mahrousa NGO.

1st April 2012, Issue No. 4

Akhbar

The Career Entrepreneurship

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CEDO organizes the Cairo University Employment Fair

Students and alumni from 25 faculties participated in the 16th Career Development and Employment Fair. 30 companies working in di�erent �elds, including industry, �nance, customer service, development, communication, and training joined the fair. The fair provided a forum for cultivating and developing productive relationships between quality graduates and the corporate world.

The Employment Fair took place on July 6th – 7th, 2011. The fair was opened by Dr. Heba Nassar, Vice President of Cairo University and Dr. Wael El Degwey, the Dean of Faculty of Engineering.

The CEDO team has received positive feedback about the Employment Fair. The way the fair was organized impressed many sectors starting with the sponsors and university administration, down to the students and alumni. The CEDO team also received excellent feedback on their Facebook Page (www.facebook.com/cedoegypt) about the registration system used in the fair as well as the quality of CEDO volunteers and how professional and presentable they were.

The Foundation envisions a society where real opportunities are created and people are empowered to delve into a more productive life that would realize their full potential. Nahdet El Mahrousa and Sawiris Foundation have partnered to implement the Sawiris Scholarship for Job Creation. The partnership aims to qualify 400 graduates to be able to join the job market and excel in it. The CEDO is implementing the program with its two main components: a) qualifying graduates and providing them with an array of training courses and b) matching them with appropriate job opportunities. The program targets 400 bene�ciaries divided into two batches. Bene�ciaries will receive training in basic skills such as communication and presentation. They will also build their professional skills in project management, leadership, decision making, problem solving, and other areas. In addition to this, recipients will be trained in CV writing, interviewing skills, and job hunting techniques. To make the graduates even more attractive candidates, they will be provided with 150 hours of English language training. Lastly, participants will re�ne their computer skills to ensure they can success-fully utilize tools like databases, PowerPoint presentations, and electronic communica-tion. Trainers at the CEDO employ interactive training techniques and innovative facilitating methodologies. Interactive training methods help get the participants involved and make the educational process more active.

Collaboration with the Sawiris Foundation to provide new scholarships for Cairo University Students and graduates.

In 2006, Nahdet El Mahrousa, in collaboration with the International Youth Foundation, USAID and other Egyptian corporate sponsors, established the �rst comprehensive Career Entrepreneurship and Development O�ce in Egypt’s largest university--Cairo University. During this short period, the CEDO was able to empower more than 10,000 students; to facilitate the employment of more than 800 graduates and provide career advising and entrepreneurship services to a broad base of students; and to provide a positive recruitment pipeline that meets the talent and needs of Egyptian companies. After realizing the growing success of CEDO initiatives, Cairo University requested NM to replicate CEDO in the main campus to serve an even larger number of bene�ciaries.

Contact Person: Wafaa BekhitEmail: wafaa.bekhit@cedoegypt.orgWebsite: www.cedoegypt.org

The Sawiris Foundation for Social Development was founded in April 2001 with an endowment from the Sawiris family. The Foundation's mission is to contribute to Egypt’s human development e�orts by providing funds to projects geared towards job creation, improved access to training and education, as well as establishing small and micro scale enterprises.

The Career & Entrepreneurship Development O�ce seeks to bridge the gap between education & employment by equipping students with key essential skills necessary to compete in the job market.

& Development O�ce (CEDO)

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El Mahrousa

CEDO National O�ce is the umbrella which the Cairo Entrepreneurship and Development O�ce works (CEDO) under. Within the 11.9% unemployment rate in Egypt, 29% of those have unviersity degrees. Therefore, there is a dire need to bridge the gap between education and employment.

This program is enforced through the following services:-Career advising and counseling-Skills enhancement-Knowledge dissemination-Placement services

Updates

Youth Invest is currently in the process of signing an agreement with the University of Assuit to replicate the CEDO program. It is planned to implement this program in all 17 national Egyptian universities within the next �ve years.

Egypt@Work

Egypt@Work, is a four-year program that aims to prepare 10,000 disadvantaged male and female youth for the job market and provide them with the skills they need to �nd employment or to start their own enterprises. Under this program, disadvantaged youth are de�ned as youth who are out-of-school, unemployed and/or at risk of dropping out of school. The Egypt@Work program addresses the need for youth employment by building alliances between the private, public and civil society sectors that foster employment training programs and services highly responsive to private sector needs and that are coordinated with Egyptian government policy and services.

Updates

Egypt@Work are still in the �rst phase of their granting process and are on their way to �nalizing contracting 3 NGOs including: -Alashanek ya Balady (AYB) -Nahdet El Mahrousa (NM) -New Horizon (NH)

They are also initiating a labour market assessment in parallel to the granting process in order to be able to make more sound decisions about which sectors and governorates to target in their future grants

Egypt@Work have issued a new Request for Applications for NGOs and informal groups to apply.

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CEDO NATIONAL OFFICE

Newly IncubatedSocial Enterprises

We are happy to introduce to you the three newest addi-tions to our NM family!

But we still have room for expansion. NM is calling on all social enterprises with the aim of development to apply to our incubator.

Masr El Baheya

Masr el Baheya is a non-pro�t, nonpartisan

initiative whose mission is to work on

raising political awareness. For the past 9

months, Masr El Baheya has been

conducting political awareness

workshops and information sessions at

universities, churches, mosques, sports

clubs, youth centers and many other

gathering areas across all Egyptian gover-

norates. They have held a six-week

training, with a session held every

Saturday, to spread understanding on

relevant political topics.

Masr Tania

Masr Tania, previously named “Live Egyptian”, is a movement to bring about another Egypt, a better Egypt, through delivering positive and inspirational stories from all around our beloved country. Masr Tania is currently devel-oping their website and focusing their e�orts on fundraising.

Monologues

Monologues is an independent art movement that

promotes cultural, political and societal understand-

ing of Egypt through story telling as well as other

forms of alternative documentation. Their current

project is called Tahrir Monologues (TM) which aims

to provide a platform for self expression revolving

around true stories and testimonies from the 18 days

of the Egyptian Revolution. TM has held several

performances around Cairo and Minya since May

2011 and has been growing at an unprecedented

rate. TM is also working on producing audio and

video recordings of the performances to be broad-

casted on Radio, TV stations and online channels.

If you are interested in joining the NM incubator, send an email to Ahmed Hussein (ahmed.hussein@nahdetmasr.org) and Irene Boghdadi (irene.boghdadi@nahdetmasr.org).

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About Nahdet El Mahrousa

Nahdet El Mahrousa (NM), in Arabic meaning the Renaissance of Egypt, is an Egyptian youth-led non-governmental organization (NGO), established in November 2003 and registered with the Min-istry of Social Solidarity. NM seeks to make a positive and lasting impact on Egypt’s cultural, economic and social development through activating and engaging Egyptian youth in the country’s development, public work and decision-making arenas. NM achieves those goals through building a strong sustainable orga-nization whose core program “Incubator of Innovative Social Enterprises” would act as a vehicle for social innovation. NM currently incubates several active projects in the areas of youth development, arts and culture development, health services, the environment, linking education to employment, promoting the culture of research and development and preparing emerging young leaders and development practitioners. The NM incubator addresses a wide community of youth, students, and other beneficiaries throughout the country.

NM targets resourceful and educated young Egyptian profession-als and empowers them through its Incubator of Innovative Social Enterprises. NM members also engage in a lively intellectual forum, both on-line as well as through a lecture series (Salon El Mahrousa), where they can share resources, ideas, information, and opinions about development practices.

Newly IncubatedSocial Enterprises

The Foundation envisions a society where real opportunities are created and people are empowered to delve into a more productive life that would realize their full potential. Nahdet El Mahrousa and Sawiris Foundation have partnered to implement the Sawiris Scholarship for Job Creation. The partnership aims to qualify 400 graduates to be able to join the job market and excel in it. The CEDO is implementing the program with its two main components: a) qualifying graduates and providing them with an array of training courses and b) matching them with appropriate job opportunities. The program targets 400 bene�ciaries divided into two batches. Bene�ciaries will receive training in basic skills such as communication and presentation. They will also build their professional skills in project management, leadership, decision making, problem solving, and other areas. In addition to this, recipients will be trained in CV writing, interviewing skills, and job hunting techniques. To make the graduates even more attractive candidates, they will be provided with 150 hours of English language training. Lastly, participants will re�ne their computer skills to ensure they can success-fully utilize tools like databases, PowerPoint presentations, and electronic communica-tion. Trainers at the CEDO employ interactive training techniques and innovative facilitating methodologies. Interactive training methods help get the participants involved and make the educational process more active.

The Incubator of Social Enterprises Updates

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The Young Innovators’ Awards (YIA) Program has been an incubated social enterprise at NM since 2004. Its main

objective is to stimulate the culture of research and development in Egypt. To date, more than 1,000 students in all 67 faculties of Engineering, Agriculture and Sceince all over Egyptian universities have received a YIA award or scholarshop to support their graduate education.

The Young Innovators’ Awards

On the 27th of September, YIA celebrated its program’s closing for the academic year in the Civic Center for Education in Zamalek where winners received their certi�cates. The best 3 projects and the top 2 ambassadors won net books donated by Mobinil. Ahmed El Guindy was chosen as the best ambassador and has attended the Youth Forum Conference held by UNESCO in France, from the 17th to the 20th of October. Four focus groups have been conducted to obtain the winners’, ambassadors’, evaluators’ and supervisors’ feedback of the 2010/2011 program in order to improve the 2011/2012 program which will launch on the 1st of December.

Updates

The Misriyati program focuses on promoting the values of tolerance, peace and diversity amoung young Egyptians through an innovative curriculum. The project has an established curriculum and teaching methodology. At the end of each cycle of workshops, participants are requested to brainstorm on means of contributing to their communities.

Seven new facilitators have started their integration plan within the Misriyati community. Ranwa Abdel Nabi, Khalil El-Masry, Dalia Said, Hanan Mosallam, Marwa Ghobashi, Mayssa Ezzat, Menna Issa, Menna Reda, and Moemen Zaki, welcome to the Misriyati team!

On the 1st & 2nd of September 2011, in partnership with "Camp for Change", Misriyati conducted the "Citizenship Hiking" workshop at St. Catherine. They addressed the issue of citizenship, re�ected upon the core values which we would like to build our new society, and to manage our public space. Then they took on the challenge of climb-ing Mt. Moses!

In partnership with Masterpeace, the Misriyati team helped organize the Peace Village Week from the 16th-22nd of September. They host-

-ed two peace salons at the Goethe Institute. The �rst salon was the screening of the "Imam and Pastor" documentary which was then discussed. The second was a dialogue session titled ‘Egyptian Citizens, Between Fear and Hope’ where the participants discussed the tribulations and aspirations of Egyptian citizens today, regardless of their ideological backgrounds.

The Misriyati team is planning on conducting several workshops in the upcoming quarter, with more focus on political concepts, political participation, and active citizenship. In addition, they are trying to explore public spaces in order to conduct open dialogue sessions tackling some of the issues that are debatable nowadays within the Egyptian society.

Misriyati

Updates

Namaa’s Summer School For Sustainable Development

Namaa' aims at creating Social Entrepreneur for a good society. They believe that a Social Entrepreneur is a proactive person who is able to work with others towards having a good social impact on the society. They do this through equipping 30 social entrepreneurs every year with the adequate knowledge, skills and values that they need to be empowered as social change agents.

Namaa’s Summer School for Sustainable Development has launched its 5th year from the period of July 1st till July 24th, at the Faculty of Economics and Political Sciences.

Namaa’s Initiative for Sustainable Devleopment has launched a new program entitled "Namaa Knowledge Sharing Campaign". This program seeks to raise awareness of political, social, and developmental issues all over Egypt. The team of volunteers organizes �eld visits to di�erent Egyptian Governorates where they exchange knowledge with the community and enrich their personal experience by being exposed to di�erent areas of Egypt.

Updates

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CEDO National O�ce is the umbrella which the Cairo Entrepreneurship and Development O�ce works (CEDO) under. Within the 11.9% unemployment rate in Egypt, 29% of those have unviersity degrees. Therefore, there is a dire need to bridge the gap between education and employment.

This program is enforced through the following services:-Career advising and counseling-Skills enhancement-Knowledge dissemination-Placement services

Updates

Youth Invest is currently in the process of signing an agreement with the University of Assuit to replicate the CEDO program. It is planned to implement this program in all 17 national Egyptian universities within the next �ve years.

Social Innovation

Dayra:

Dayra, initially named “The Nile Flowers”, is a

social enterprise which aims to preserve the

environment by utilizing agricultural waste

and the Water Hyacinths (Nile �ower) plant,

which are potentially harmful to the environ-

ment, to produce green products. Not only

does this project aim at utilizing potentially

harmful resources for generating profit, it aims

at restoring a production ideology through

engaging talented individuals in the produc-

tion of the products such as handmade cards,

notebooks, paper bags, etc. Dayra is now

going through the procedures for registering

as a company and they are working on their

brand’s image.

Kherna (Civil Society Portal):Kherna is an online social platform for all good-cause organizations and

individuals to communicate and keep track of all the new initiatives and

activities. The Kherna team focuses all its e�orts to bring social media

engagement into charity and development. They had their own booth in

the ‘Give Back’ event in El-Sawy Cultural Wheel which gathered NGOs from

all over Egypt. They were also among the speakers in the ‘Masr Ya Om’ event

held at El-Sawy Cultural Wheel where they talked about the power of

technology in empowering the masses and how it can give NGOs working

in charity and development leverage. Mohamed Korayem represented

Kherna in the Cairo Startup Weekend event as a mentor. Kherna has also

mentored other startup projects which dream of starting a new venture to

help the charity and development sector. Kherna have collaborated with

‘Kheer Guide’ and ‘Bwabet El-Kheer’ to create a model that can help them all

enrich the experience of using technology to aid NGOs. The new version of

the website will be up and running by the end of October.

The Competition of Robot Design

(C.O.R.D)

The Competition of Robot Design (C.O.R.D)

CORD is a social enterprise that aims to

commercialize science by spreading

technology awareness and smart entertain-

ment. CORD started in 2007 as a single

student activity and has expanded to

include: robot building competitions,

technology awareness events, robot kits and

dynamic commercial products. CORD is

currently focusing on the development of

young scientists across all governorates

through trainings and events to promote

robot building. Their new game series, the

CORDian will appear regularly in social

events for public awareness as well as

funding for CORD. They’ve also participated

in this year’s Maker Faire Africa.

Bosletak (Youth Career Advising Portal)

Bosletak.com, previously named Fitter.com aims to unveil

human potential through an online platform that helps the

youth of Egypt realize their potential and decide their educa-

tional and career paths. Bosletak has recently been registered

as a company. After doing extensive market research in

schools and universities in Alexandria, the Bosletak.com team

has decided to include articles, video interviews, forums and

amplitude tests on the website. They are currently collecting

the data to be used on the website which will launch within a

month.

Nahdet El Mahrousa and Yahoo!Maktoob partnered together to encourage social entrepreneurship through the online campaign ‘Social Innovation Starts With YOU!’. Individuals with social entrepre-neurship ideas applied to the competition. The following are the nine winners who are now incubated social enterprises at NM.N

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Starts With YOU!

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Loving Hearts (Omahat Badeela):Through adequate training and rehabilitation of orphanage workers, Omahat Badeela aims to address the problems related to low levels of training and capacity building o�ered to orphanage workers and foster care workers. They’re currently launching the second phase of their trainings, their website and working on an advocacy model to apply to orphanage trainers on a nationwide scale.

Oyoon Art Group:

Oyoon, founded in 2007, o�ers a safe and

open space to promote education

through art amongst Egyptian youth.

Oyoon uses a number of tools to create

the desired learning experience includ-

ing: documentaries, illustrations, anima-

tions, cartoons, shadow puppetry

theatre, photography and �lm-making.

They’ve o�cially registered their

company and are working with Save The

Children to implement their trainings in

El Minya.

EgyptCarPoolers.com EgyptCarPoolers.com, founded in 2008, is an initiative to promote the concept and bene�ts of carpooling in Egypt and provide an online platform to facilitate the process. It works with a very basic model: there is a list of people who can o�er rides and there is a list of people who are looking for rides and the site automatically matches similar rides together. They’re currently upgrading their website which will be launched in English end of November and in Arabic mid-December.

Alemni.org:

Alemni.org, initially named The Cairo Learning Directory

(CLD), is an Arabic online portal that enables

tutors/instructors to advertise their services and learners to

�nd suitable tutors/instructors. The Alemni.org team has been

meeting with a diverse variety of people who are involved in

the learning/teaching process. People such as: high school

physics teachers, poets, photographers collectives, calligra-

phers in Old Cairo, martial arts instructors, architects, histori-

ans, an urban farming movement, and the list goes on! The

team believes that the strength of Alemni.org as an online

networking tool lies ultimately in the o�ine, real-world

connections between people. They have been going around

Cairo, �nding out about di�erent learning opportunities and

hearing people’s stories about great teachers they’ve had. The

website is currently under development and will be launched

by the end of January 2012.

Mashrou3 Al Mareekh:

Mashrou3 Al Mareekh (MM), previously known as “Project

Yourself”, is an Egyptian movement dedicated to promoting

self-expression among young people. Whether that expression is

artistic, scienti�c, musical, poetic or something di�erent, they

aim to give youth a platform to express themselves in any way.

MM has recently been touring Egypt from North to South and

has been collaborating with other self-expression movements

such as Monologues. They’ve also participated in this year’s

Maker Faire Africa. Mashrou3 Al Mareekh plan on repeating the

visits to these governorates and towns on a monthly basis and to

conduct workshops on how to host an open mic event.

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Namaa’s Summer School For Sustainable Development

Namaa' aims at creating Social Entrepreneur for a good society. They believe that a Social Entrepreneur is a proactive person who is able to work with others towards having a good social impact on the society. They do this through equipping 30 social entrepreneurs every year with the adequate knowledge, skills and values that they need to be empowered as social change agents.

Namaa’s Summer School for Sustainable Development has launched its 5th year from the period of July 1st till July 24th, at the Faculty of Economics and Political Sciences.

Namaa’s Initiative for Sustainable Devleopment has launched a new program entitled "Namaa Knowledge Sharing Campaign". This program seeks to raise awareness of political, social, and developmental issues all over Egypt. The team of volunteers organizes �eld visits to di�erent Egyptian Governorates where they exchange knowledge with the community and enrich their personal experience by being exposed to di�erent areas of Egypt.

NM’s Green ArmNM incubated Green Arm with the aim to increase environmental awareness and support initiatives to improve our environment and increase environmental activism.

Urban Permaculture Workshop by Dominic De Bruin

An introduction to Permaculture and it's application in Egypt. Permaculture is the conscious design and maintenance of agriculturally productive ecosys-tems in rural and urban landscapes, which have the diversity, stability, and the strength of natural eco-systems. It is harmonious combination of land and people, supplying their food, energy, shelter and other material and non-material needs in a sustainable way.

Latest in the Green Series of Salon El-Mahrousa:

Moving Planet

Moving Planet is an event which took place globally on the 23rd and 24th of September. To be a part of this, Greem Arm hosted a cycling rally in Heliopolis to promote sustainable transportation in Egypt and to decrease tra�c. Over 500 partici-pants joined this event on foot or on bicycles, carrying banners and wearing blue, representing the Nile. NM’s Mashrou3 Al Mareekh, along with other civil society organizations were a large part of the organization and participation of this event. After the march, everyone gathered in a park where they were greeted by the Heliopolis district president followed by opening speeches from the organizers. A concert ensued with performances from the Zabaleen band who play with instru-ments made from scrap materialsn, followed by traditional songs played by a member from the Bashayra tribe from Marsa Allam.

What’s Next?

In the networking workshop, the plans for 2011 were discussed and a b r a i n s t o r m i n g exercise generated many ideas for c o l l a b o r a t i o n

among environmentalists and various emerging initiatives. The plans for 2011 included venturing into producing Green Arm publications addressing transportation issues in Egypt and challenges in public spaces, and developing a multidisciplinary research network for such sustainability issues. Plans also include upcoming awareness and campaigning activities that aim to harmonize the e�orts of the various green initiatives.

‘Egypt Green Days’ at the Global Entrepreneurship Week

The Global Entrepreneurship Week is an event which aims to promote innovative thought within a wide range of people working in companies, NGOs, students, etc. 104 countries participated worldwide with a total of 40,000 events and 10 million participants. Green arm hosted two workshops at the AUC Campus. The �rst, called ‘Green Entrepreneurship and Eco-Design’ had a number of speakers which included: Francesca Culcasi, Ali Abo Sena, Jesus Iglesis Saugar and Nicola Cerantola. This workshop aimed to inform, prepare and empower Egyptian entrepreneurs to use a green approach in their work. A variety of tools and applied technical methodologies from the Green Economy initiatives and program, Eco-design, Ethical Financial Institutions and by success stories of existing green entrepreneurs in The Global Gardener" Film Screen-

ing and discussion lead by Ashraf Al Shafaki

Part 2 of the permaculture series with a screening of "The Global Gardner" by Bill Mollison, co-founder of Permaculture. This is a collection of four half hour videos explaining Permaculture in the context of four di�erent climates.

Biomimcry - An Approach for Sustainability in Egypt - Presenta-tion and Workshop by Sara El Sayed

Introduction to biomimcry and exploring how it can be applied in Egypt. Biomimicry is the conscious emulation of nature’s complicated yet beautiful systems and models to create human design. This ever expanding �eld inspires us to

Green Arm Coral Reef Resilience Workshop by Dr. Moshira Hassan

Coral reefs are a vital natural and cultural heritage that many depend on. This workshop was held in order to raise awareness on the importance of their conserva-tion and the threats they are under. Four sessions were held along with a �eld trip to the reefs of the southern Ain Sokhna area.

The Green Arm Pulls Up its Sleeves!

“I build Egypt”, as many of the celebrative signs read, was the topic of the Green Arm’s �rst annual retreat on April 2nd. It was held in El-Khan Green Building of the Oasis Ecolodge Initiative. The day started with a stimulating discussion about the role of youth in rebuilding Egypt’s sustainability. Invited experts started the day with an inspiring panel discussion. They reminded environmental activists about the importance of respecting their national identity by recognizing our inherited environ-mental know-how, understanding our local resources, conditions, and history, and learning from our rich past while using the power-ful tools of the future.

Among the innovative ideas presented through-out the day included the presentation of “Our Local Green Transport Agenda; A socially just & sustain-able strategy” by NM Green Arm member Yahia Shawkat of the Tarek Waly Center for Architecture & Heritage, and “Cycling for Change – A Model for Environmental Action” by the Green Arm Outreach team, as well as a series of presentations and an exhibition of youth-led environmental initiatives including 350 Egypt, EcoOptions, MTB Egypt, Keep Egypt Clean, Keep Giza Clean, Green Hands, Egypt Carpoolers, One Movement, and others.

Green Arm Meets the Tribes of Egypt

The Characters of Egypt festival is held annually to promote tolerance within Egypt’s diverse cultural di�erences. It’s a platform which joins a large number of Egypt’s tribal ethnic groups, enabling them to showcase their culture and traditions as well as interacting with the other participants who are a variety of Cairenes, tourists and journalists. This time, the festival was held on the island of Heisa in Aswan. Raising awareness about sustainability is a big factor of the festival and this is where Green Arm comes in. GA members presented a workshop to discuss and compare the environmental challenges of Cairenes versus the tribes.

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Workshops and S

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Salon El Mahrousa is a series of lively, interactive sessions lead by leading public intellectuals and NM mem-bers. They examine di�erent �elds across development issues in Egypt. Di�erent themes include promoting tolerance and diversity in Egyptian society; exploring Egypt’s identity and its values; the economic, social and political trends shaping Egypt; dialogues based on free thinking and freedom of opinion on current topics; highlights of successful civil society initiatives. Workshops are also given on various entrepreneurship, cultural and civil society topics.

‘Appropriate Building Patterns for Saint Catherine, Egypt’- A Book Review

After living with the Jebaleyah tribe in South Sinai for 33 months, Nashwa Ibrahim published the book ‘Appropriate Building Patterns for Saint Catherine, Egypt’. In this Salon on the 20th of July, brought by NM’s Green Arm, Nashwa Ibrahim further explored the unique architectural idiom of Saint Catherine and the environmental, cultural and economical values it presents through its rapidly changing architectural structures.

The Streets of Cairo and the Battle of

Public Space

This Salon, lead by Fady S. El-Sadek on the 21st of

September, discussed Cairo’s desperate need of open,

public spaces. It was divided into three parts which

covered the importance of public spaces within the

contemprary global city and how they contribute to its

social, political and environmental stability; the history

of Cairo’s built environment to identify trends and

patterns in sustainable development; an evaluation of

previous modes of development/redevelopment of

public spaces in the city and a review of new ways of

sustainable redevlopment in the city.

Capacity Building Tools for Civil Society

OrganizationsOn the 25th of September, Moustafa Mourad, the

interim president of One Economy Corporation which

aims to develop underprivileged communitites by

bringing in technology into their lives, lead this Salon.

Moustafa Mourad discussed the various capacity build-

ing tools for civil society organizations to better serve

their communities, and methodologies for linking

businesses and communities in an asset-based

approach to employment.

How to Build an Innovative Organization

Osama Ghanim, the founder and CEO of Innovabia- Innovation Arabia, a company which aims to spread the culture of innovation among organizations, held this Salon on the 26th of July. Osama Ghanim explained that building an innovative organization can be achieved through two stages. The �rst is by embedding the culture of innovation within the organization and its workforce. The second is by introducing the systematic innovation management techniques into the organization and applying them. These points were enthusi-astically discussed in depth.

Seminars

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Bosletak (Youth Career Advising Portal)

Bosletak.com, previously named Fitter.com aims to unveil

human potential through an online platform that helps the

youth of Egypt realize their potential and decide their educa-

tional and career paths. Bosletak has recently been registered

as a company. After doing extensive market research in

schools and universities in Alexandria, the Bosletak.com team

has decided to include articles, video interviews, forums and

amplitude tests on the website. They are currently collecting

the data to be used on the website which will launch within a

month.