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Published: November 23rd 2008
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I apologize for not posting for a long time and yes I am still alive and well in Egypt.
Some of you have been asking about my work with the Gerhart Center and so I thought it would be good to talk about in this post.
Right when I got to Cairo and started work, I was helping out with the conference that occurred in mid-October. It was Exhausting! This conference took every ounce of energy I had, but I think it was tremendously successful - both the delegates and I learned a great deal about the current status of civic engagement in the Middle East & Northern Africa, the challenges faced, and the steps need to increase community involvement within universities and college students in the region. However, behind-the-scenes it was total chaos! Business not arriving, AV equipment not working, meeting rooms locked, not enough binders with conference material, wrong information in the binder, swarms of journalists and TV station crews (about 15 journalists and 4/5 TV stations). They were either there for His Excellency Minister of Higher Education to Egypt Hani Helal, Dr. Mo Ibrahim, or Her Excellency Minister of Higher Education to South Africa Naledi Pandor.
Here are some news articles that I found:
And there are probably more, but in Arabic. The conference brought together senior leaders in higher education (at President or Provost Level) to share their experiences, explore new approaches to meaningful engagement, and address obstacles in a systematic way. In recognition of the important role played by young people as future citizens, the conference also provided parallel opportunities for student leaders to voice their ideas and contributions. Key leaders from Arab civil society and the private sector also provide their perspectives on the potential for greater partnership with universities.
After the conference I’ve been working on several initiatives. We are planning to launch a network of Arab Universities committed to implementing and increasing civic engagement on their campuses. I helped with the conference report, and am working on creating a website for the network to facilitate dialogue amongst the members of the network and to keep member universities updated on upcoming meetings/conferences. The students at these universities also play an important role and we hope to keep them involved.
I worked with the Director of Community-Based Learning abbreviated CBL to organize a Institute which presented to faculty the idea of service-learning, ways other faculty have integrated CBL into their curriculum, tools for assessing the success of a CBL course, and the future of CBL at the University.
I contributed to writing a grant proposal for $100,000 USD to UNICEF. We proposed a mapping of youth civic engagement in the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region in hopes of providing policy suggestions to improve youth civic engagement in the future. This mapping is important because to date there has not been a complete assessment of youth civic engagement in the region.
I also took the lead to organize a Campus Conversation titled “The Power of Facebook: Online Social Networks as Tools for Civic Engagement.” The conversation allowed students and professors to discuss ways of mobilizing people for social movements through Facebook. We also discussed the limitations that Facebook creates to create a strong movement, proactive engagement through facebook, and how political organizations in the region use facebook to express themselves since their actions are limited by the government (i.e. In Yemen, it’s illegal to hold strikes/protests).
Just recently, I helped my Associate Director put together a presentation on
Thanksgiving in Egypt
Three turkeys!!! We had Thanksgiving dinner early because all the interns are traveling during the break. I will be going with a group to the Siwa Oasis (Western Egypt near Libya) Corporate Philanthropy and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) for a conference titled US Corporate Ambassadors Conference 2008 Structuring Philanthropy for the Future of Egypt, hosted by the Association for Women’s Total Advancement & Development (AWTAD). I researched local, regional and global organizations to gain an understanding of their social responsible work towards communities and the environment. I attended the first day of the conference which helped me grasp a better understanding of CSR and the operations of Foundations such as the Conrad Hilton Foundation.
In addition, I am doing a literature review of government and non-governmental civic engagement programs in Egypt on their policies, budgets and participation information. This will prepare me for the research I will have to do once we receive the UNICEF grant for mapping youth civic engagement in the MENA region. Next semester, I will be the advisor to the Student Leaders for Service program organized by the Gerhart Center. The program helps students develop leadership skills, gain a better understanding of philanthropy and civic engagement and provide students with the opportunity to organize campus conversations or public lectures. I will be contributing to the series of Grantmaking Trainings the Center will be hosting next year.
Seafood Restuarant in Alexandria
They had to stack the dishes because there was no room for the amount of food we were served. And it was really good too! These trainings help members of Foundations learn how to structure, implement and manage grants which they provide to NGOs and other organizations. Also, I will be helping with the research for the second phase of the mapping philanthropy in the Arab region initiative. Another event includes collaborating with the American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt to host a training focused on writing Sustainability Reports for Egyptian corporate businesses.
I’m sure there are other things that I will be working on in the future and will keep you updated. I hope that I didn’t fail to explain any jargon I used to describe my work, but if I did, just post a comment so that I can clarify.
I will try my best to keep you all up-to-date on life in Cairo.
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Jeff
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thief!
you gonna give me a photo credit there amigo? how about a link to my post about it?