Nahdet el Mahrousa (NM), or “Renaissance of Egypt”, seeks to make a positive and lasting impact on Egypt’s cultural, economic, and social development by activating and engaging young Egyptians. NM’s flagship program, the “Incubator of Innovative Social Enterprises”, leverages the ideas of high-potential changemakers and empowers them to act as drivers of social innovation in Egypt. Since its founding in 2003, NM has incubated over 40 social enterprises – in areas such as youth development, education, employment, healthcare, and culture – which currently reach and impact over 10,000 individuals in Egypt. NM is an Egyptian NGO registered with the Ministry of Social Solidarity.

About Nahdet El Mahrousa

INSIDE THIS ISSUE:

Discover what newly incubated Outa Hamara has been up to on pages 2

Get updates from inside the Incubator on page 3 -

Find out about NM ‘s Partnership: Egypt@Work on page 7

Read about our salons this month on page 8

Read about Egyptians who make us proud on page 9

Nahdet el Mahrousa (NM) leverages the ideas and power of social innovators to tackle Egypt's toughest challenges. By activating and engaging young professionals, we make a positive and lasting impact on Egypt’s social, cultural, and economic development and help Egyptians take ownership of their country.

The first incubator for “early stage” youth-led social

enterprises in Egypt and the

region

Akhbar El Mahrousa November 2012, Issue No.10

Akhbar El Mahrousa P a g e | 2 NOVEMBER, 2012

Outa Hamra Outa Hamra had a very busy month. In the beginning of November Outa Hamra organized a tour, in cooperation with Horus Association, in Sohag Governorate on 9th, 10th, and 11th of November 2012.Six performances were done in different places and for different audiences at the Gomhoriya Open Theatre; Three schools (Sohag, Tahta, Nazlet Omara) a street performance in Nazlet Omara. The total audience over the six shows was roughly 3000 people of all ages. Additionally, on 26th of November, as part of UNICEF project: "Drama for the improvement of Psychological Health of Children in a Street Situation" Ongoing workshops in four local CBOs. Preparation for the street-festival-performance was

done with 25 children from the four CBO's.

Info: Blog: http://outahamra.blogspot.com Facebook:www.facebook.com/outa7amra

Newly Incubated Social Enterprises

NM held information session to introduce interested entrepreneurs to its incubation project. It’s now evaluating applications for the new incubation round for the year 2013.

NM announces 5th round of incubation

Akhbar El Mahrousa P a g e | 3 NOVEMBER, 2012 r

Kherna.com is an online social platform for all good-cause organizations and individuals to communicate and keep track of all the new initiatives and activities.

Kherna had a month full of events. Amira represented Kherina at Kafr ELSheihk TEDx on the 3rd of November. Additionally, Kherna's booth took place at the AUC campus “Plaza Area” where we talked about Kherna’s idea and got a lot of good feedback from the students. Additionally, Kherna celebrated the universal children’s day on the 20th of November 2012 and started its winter campaign that aimed to collect all winter related charitable activities in one place to help people find what suits them better and use social media to enable people virally spread the page content giving more reach to the NGOs charitable opportunities Info: Website: http://www.kherna.com E-Mail: info@kherna.com Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/Kherna Twitter: @KhernaME Blog: http://www.blog.kherna.com

The Incubator of Social Enterprises

OTDI is an organization launched by Medical Students and fresh graduates to the Egyptian population planning to take the lead and change the already present misconceptions and misinformation and to promote/ advocate for legal organ donation.

OTDI partnered with The Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR) to co-organize a discussion entitled "The human body (and its components)" that took place on Wednesday the 7th of November 2012. The discussion raised the topic of organ donation, organ trafficking and scientific research amongst NGO representatives, policy makers, doctors, researchers and students. OTDI gained even more exposure in the medical community by being featured in MINDS- a TEDx-like event specifically for innovative healthcare ideas. There, the team grasped the opportunity to market for their first product, a 3-month research program that provides medical students with a comprehensive introduction to

research and allows them to work with the transplantation pioneers.

Info:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/otdi.eg/

Akhbar El Mahrousa P a g e | 4 NOVEMBER, 2012

Nawaya (seed / intention) is a not-for-profit social enterprise that promotes sustainable agriculture. The ‘Nawas’ kept their hands busy in October and November conducting composting trainings, representing Egypt at Slow Food's Terra Madre in Italy, preparing their farm and demonstration site in Abu Sir, planting seed bombs in Cairo and Alexandria and even designing eco-friendly trash bins. What's more, Sara El-Sayed, one of Nawaya’s founders, took Nawaya all the way to Slow Foods Terra Madre in Italy and the world with her election to represent North Africa at the Slow Food International Congress. Besides being physically present in most activities related to Permaculture and food security, Nawaya also launched the final version of their website (www. nawayaegypt.org) and is now available on Twitter (@NawayaEgypt)! For more information please visit: http://www.nawayaegypt.org Twitter: (@NawayaEgypt)

HarassMap is a volunteer initiative that works to end social tolerance for sexual harassment through community outreach programs and internet- and sms-based reporting. On November 25th, a social media campaign was initiated through Harassmap's facebook and twitter accounts asking women and men to share their stories of courage; standing up to sexual harassment. Over the course of the week, they received several stories of courage through their Facebook wall, the #endSH #TellUrStory #legySLATE #EndVAW hastags and twitter @Harassmap. Furthermore, Harassmap corresponded with its volunteer base and Facebook followers, inviting them to join Rapid Intervention groups formation at the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR). HarassMap is also part of a collaborative effort called Operation Anti Sexual Harassment @OpAntiSH that started being active in Tahrir on Friday the 30th of November to counter mob sexual assault incidents. The collaboration includes EIPR, Bassma, Nazra for Feminist Studies, other groups and individual volunteers. HarassMap was also represented at the Networking European Citizenship Education (NECE) 2012 conference in Cordoba and at TEDx Barcelona.

For more information please visit: Website: www.harassmap.org Facebook: HarassMapEgypt/info Email: info@harassmap.org

Akhbar El Mahrousa P a g e | 5 NOVEMBER, 2012

The Misriyati program focuses on promoting the values of tolerance, peace and diversity among 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. In November, Misriyati delivered "Diversity Workshops" for university students of the Lotus program, in partnership with NM and the Institute of International Education (IIE). The "Diversity workshops' is a space where participants can safely share their experiences as Egyptians confronted to diversity in our daily lives, and read these experiences in the light of relevant concepts. Understanding the social dynamics that start from polarization and leads to exclusion and discrimination is an important step in breaking this cycle. Also, by exploring the different issues related to the management of diversity in the public space, participants realize the depths of the questions and the values at stake. We believe that only through this type of awareness and dialogue can we overcome the challenges of polarization that our society is faced with. One individual at a time.

Akhbar El Mahrousa P a g e | 6 NOVEMBER, 2012

Bosletak Bosletak.com aims to unveil human potential through an online platform that helps Egyptian youth realize their potential and discover their appropriate educational and career paths. Bosletak held an event called E3raf Taree2ak (know your way) on 23rd of November to introduce Bosletak to a wider audience. E3raf taree2ak hosted more than 1000 student in high school and university to help them in decision making through their professional and educational career cross roads. The event is mainly divided into 14 session in different fields

10-15 min each. Where in each session professionals introduced his/her field to students, and tackled the following topics: • What are the short description of different departments in college? • What are the GPA needed to join? • Is there any Scholarships and courses that are offered? • What are the different professions in this field? And how would fresh graduates be able to find a suitable job? •What are the pros and cons of working in this field? •Talking about success stories or failures to learn from.

Info:

Website: www.bosletak.com

Email: info@bosletak.com

Facebook page: www.facebook.com/bosletak

Youtube: www.youtube.com/Bosletak

Twitter: @bosletak

Young Innovators’ Awards After the huge success of the YIA’s 8 years of success celebration under the title of

“Economic growth through innovation,” our winners and their projects received huge

media attention, which translated to interest from market leaders. Two of YIA winning

projects, “Mobile Payment” and “Flying Brain”, were recognized by Engineer Mohamed

El Sallit of the Arab Organization for Industrialization, as he saw potential in their

application and development, requesting to get in touch with the project owners.

With the continuous support of Nahdet El Mahrousa and YIA’s goal to encourage

innovation in Egypt, another program, “Smart Hospital” was recognized by Dr. Medhat

Sayed, owner of “AMD Koborashen,” who expressed his content that there are Egyptian

engineers developing this system in Egypt and his wish to apply the “Smart Hospital

system” in his hospital instead of buying an American one.

Info:

Website: www.nahdetmasr.org/yia

Email: yia-bd@nahdetmasr.org

Facebook page: www.facebook.com/bosletak Twitter: @YIA_program

Akhbar El Mahrousa P a g e | 7 NOVEMBER, 2012

NM Partnerships

“During November, the E@W team carried two field work visits to 3 of our Local Implementing Partners (LIPs) in El

Menya and El Fayoum. Throughout such visits, not only did the team manage to monitor the performance of LIPs in

implementing their respective projects, but also they got the opportunity to meet with the programme’s direct beneficiaries.

The latter are intended to provide a realistic picture of the groundwork taking place enabling the team to evaluate overall

progress as well as to conduct any necessary programmatic modifications. Furthermore, preparations are currently underway

for the TOT PTS life skills training scheduled to take place in December in Hurghada for our LIPs. The one week PTS

workshop will be conducted by IYF Jordan’s master trainers during which our LIPs will be trained on PTS methodology for

replication in their current E@W projects. In the meantime and following the E@W labour market assessment, the

programme’s new LIPs are currently implementing their own local market assessment. Those partners have been trained on

developing their study tools and methodologies by the E@W team. Such assessments include interviewing both employers

and youth to assist LIPs in tailoring their project”

Akhbar El Mahrousa P a g e | 8 NOVEMBER, 2012

SALON EL Mahrousa

The Human Body and its Components – 7 November 2012

EIPR – the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights

OTDI – Organ Transplantation and Donation Initiative

The salon discussed the topic of organ donation, organ trafficking and scientific research as well as Article 41 of the new constitution that discusses medical research and regulates organ donation.

Managing and Preserving Egypt’s Marine Areas

Dr. Ameer Abdulla, Senior Advisor to Marine Biodiversity and Conservation Science, IUCN

Usama Ghazali, Chair of the Red Sea Protected Area Development Association

The salon discussed:

Protected areas and MPAs in general

Wadi El-Gemal & Gabal Elba, and their respective marine areas

Challenges that are faced by Marine areas in Egypt

Current efforts and future solutions for preserving these marine areas

Speed Ideas: when 1+1 = 3 – 17 November 2012

In celebration of Global Entrepreneurship week NM and El-Mashrou3 organized a speed-pitch and peer guidance event for early phase entrepreneurs. The entire event was based on the principles of collaboration and active participation.

Sewage Problems in Rural Egypt, 21 November 2012

Mr. Sameh Seif Ghali

The salon discussed topics of infrastructure and sewage problems in rural and informal areas in Egypt revolving around the following points

- How sewage water contaminate drinking water

- How to solve this problem in informal areas and rural Egypt

- Cheap and simple infrastructure technology

- Success stories in rural Egypt

- What’s the role of NGOs in building awareness for good infrastructure.

Salon Snacks brought to you by:

Akhbar El Mahrousa P a g e | 9 NOVEMBER, 2012

r

Egyptians Who Make Us Proud

Mohammed El-Raffie, Egypt - Cord

Mohammed is unlocking the potential of Egypt’s youth by shifting them away from the role of

passive recipients of an instructor-led education to one in which they learn through hands-on

experimentation. More than the actual subject matter, students master critical soft skills

currently systematically neglected in the country’s educational institutions, but which define

the modern economy. M

CORD is an Egyptian project aims to Egyptian and Arabian community advancement by Tech

Awareness & Smart Entertainment, activities & events increasing scope of interest & inspiring

people to be more productive individuals.

A social Business aims for technology awareness. Starting with Robot Building Sports.

1. Practical, interpersonal & technical skills "Triangle of knowledge" (What we teach in

CORD)

2. Money, Time & Knowledge "Triangle of Decision Making" (What we take in consideration in

CORD)

3. Society, Business & Science "Triangle of CORD" (How we do it in CORD)

Moahmmed El-Raffie and Cord are currently fellows of Ashoka.

.