The Definitive Guide to Living in the Capital , Cairo , Egypt

Education enables, inspires, and impacts entire communities. In a not so far away land, Nancy Awad, a rising senior at Swarthmore College, and an Egyptian university student from Benha in Egypt, decided to implement a social initiative in Upper Egypt. Nancy’s project – Banat Seshat Initiative (Daughters of Seshat) – is named after the Ancient Egyptian goddess, Seshat; the goddess of knowledge, wisdom, and intelligence. The initiative hopes to instil a love and commitment to learning among Egypt’s young girls.

Indeed, the main core of the project is to make educational opportunities more available to orphaned girls in Upper Egypt, who experience neglect, orphan stigmatisation, and sexism. Moreover, Daughters of Seshat helps challenge the current stereotypes that paint Upper Egyptians to be brainless and backwards. Mainly, the main goal behind the initiative is to increase digital literacy and provide a more meaningful path towards self-realisation, higher education, and social integration using education, technological resources, and administering a computer literacy curriculum.

The goals of the initiative will be met through a twenty-day pilot program, intended to run twice throughout the summer, during July and August. Each month, two sessions will be delivered mornings and evenings in order to accommodate each participant’s varying schedules. All classrooms were equipped and fully prepared in June. Additionally, certificate distribution, a final ceremony, and new teacher training will take place during the winter break. Furthermore, the program aims to provide a positive way for women to interact with the outside world, beyond the walls of the orphanage. As such, the program will provide a comprehensive forum for genuine empowerment.

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

UPDATE: Due to a high level of interest/enrollment and a large number of participants, the initiative has decided to add a THIRD session for the month of July. Therefore, there will be a morning class and two afternoon classes to accommodate all the participants! We are so honored to have such enthusiastic students ❤️

A post shared by The Benat Seshat Initiative (@benatseshat) on Jul 4, 2019 at 5:18am PDT

This is a message from us to the whole world, to our beloved fellow readers, and to all those who care for a better generation and a promising Egypt, the initiative is in great need of help and support. We believe it’s our responsibility to speak up and take positive action. Go check them out on Facebook, and on Instagram. You can also email nawad1@swarthmore.edu should you want to help out in any way!