Events, initiatives, forums, lectures and talks related to women’s empowerment and mentoring are becoming a significant aspect of the Egyptian society.
The first weekend of March witnessed the fifth forum of Entreprenelle titled ‘She can’. Entreprenelle, founded in 2015, is a social enterprise specialised in empowering young female entrepreneurs. Its main aim is to empower women in every aspect of their business careers.
“More than 1,000 female entrepreneurs participated in the ‘She Can’ event. Over the two days we held panel discussions, workshops and talks to deliver the best success stories of female Egyptian entrepreneurs to the audience,” said Menna El Husseiny, PR specialist of Entreprenelle.
“One of the most significant activities we held this year, was the mentorship clinic, where entrepreneurs sit on one on one basis with young female students or with other counterparts who are still working on their ideas for start ups or SMEs.
“We deal with various age groups of women, starting from girls at school to women in their 40s who need guidance for career shifting, for instance. Our main goal is to fill the gap between men and women that is present in the business sector. We work on empowering women by various means, through awareness campaigns, mentoring sessions, lectures, panel discussions and Special camps,” El Husseiny continued.
One of the attendees of the ‘She can’ event was Abdel Fattah El Sharkawy, the Co-founder of StreetPal app, a smart application platform aiming to build a community of well trained advocates who are able to help spread awareness about sexual harassment in Egypt and to help women deal with it.
“The application contains a lot of awareness information directed at women; it is designed as a module guide that is delivering the information through chatting with the user; it tells the woman how to cope in various situations related to harassment, “explained El Sharkawy.
He went on to explain that StreetPal is currently seeking to apply the Uber concept on the app., which means the application will enable the woman to call for help, if she experiences sexual harassment.
“The application will display a special button to be pressed if the woman needs one of the trained advocates to go to her,” said El Sharkawy.
It is to be noted that Streetpal was founded in 2016 and launched in 2017. It is displayed on Google play store; by 2020 Streetpal is aiming to have trained advocates in various Egyptian governorates.
Samah Samir, co-founder of ‘Matbak souka’, or the ‘Kitchen of Souka’, a cooking and life style page, was one of the participants at the working mothers panel. The panel addressed the main challenges that face working mums in Egypt. The panel mainly discussed the importance of digital marketing in helping mothers to market their businesses online, as online marketing might be extremely effective to reach a wider scope of audience.
“I believe such events are extremely important to give awareness to women and young girls who need guidance for their careers in Egypt. I participated in a mentor’s clinic during this event; its aim was to sit one on one with university students who need guidance with their career choices.
Girls in Egypt are faced with various challenges starting from strict parenting to out-dated taboos. A big number of Egyptian girls end up being isolated and lacking experience in life; such events help them to broaden their scope and exchange experiences with successful older women who were able to draw career paths. It is like an open market. It is crucial for them to see success stories of other women,” explained Samir.
It is to be noted that the event hosted many public figures such as Rasha Samir, novelist and journalist in “Sout El Oma” newspaper, as well as the talented young musician Hisham Kharma and his executive producer Nesma El Shazly, who also participated in working mothers’ panel.
The event celebrated the launch of Sheik Zayed memorial designed by the young Egyptian designer Shosha Kamel, for 57357 hospital in Egypt.
It is the first movable memorial worldwide.
The “She can” event displayed the video designed for the memorial, two music inspirational pieces were composed for the video by the Egyptian musician Omar khairat and the young music composer Hisham kharma.
