hi all ,
here is my contribution for the article about Egypt .
What I had in mind that I can talk about 4 different not connected scenes in Egypt so as not to make the call for action seems to be limited to some target groups , I tried not to talk alot also in order not to make it big and boring .I only completed 2 scenes and the other 2 will be finished soon and for the arabic speakers on the site I wrote in egyptian arabic " ammia " in order to make it less formal do u think it 's ok or not please give me feedback about so we can all make a better final version --------------------------------
scene 1
If you are moving on the ring road in the area between "26 of july "and “Saft Ellaban” you will pass by Al Mu’tamidia exit ramp . This exit is a bit different than any other exit on the ring road as it is not done by the government , It is done by the people of Al Mu’tamidia during the 3 months of the collapse of the secuirty apparatus after Moubarak ouster.
To know the story from the begining Al Mu’tamidia is like any other informal settlement in Cairo is cut off from the main road beside it and don’t have access to it and this leads to daily transportation problems but people always manage to find pop up solutions by building small stairs leading to the ring road where there is always “informal” microbuses stations.and this is accompanied by more small interventions like tea stands ,coffee shops and car repair points.
People of Al Mu’tamidia needed to build this exit from a long time ago and when the chance opened for constructing it they took the chance during the “temporary collapse of local authorities “.
That project is a huge project that costed 1 million egyptian pounds including 4 ramps like the official exits from the ring road and people of Al Mu’tamidia contributed to it with effort money and expertise through a local community initiative called "Al Mu’tamidia baladna” which means “Al Mu’tamidia is our country” .They documented the process of construction in a video and after finishing the exit they invited the local authorities to come and inaugurate the exit.
That was a scene from a big scale urban intervention in Cairo which “we” knew about it from the amazing work of cluster , you can know more about these interventions and more in this publication which is the source of this story.
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scene 2
In the meantime in another place in Cairo -ELmaady-, Hany Elgamal was afraid that his sons would be lost in the “maze” of the educational system in Egypt. He found out that his kids spend a lot of time in school -from 6:30 to 16 :30 going from Elmaady to Eltagamo’ everyday and they come back exhausted with no energy or time to even study , do their homework and play and they became accustomed to have the easy answer for the questions and not to search for the answers themselves because obviously they have not time or energy to do so, this besides the fact that every day in school he is a sitting passively listening to teachers and the curriculum itself has lots of problems.
So Hany -with 2 kids ahmed in the 1st preparatory stage and karim in the 3rd primary stage- took a daring decision to quit school for his kids and start homeschooling.Of course the kids were over the moon with this decision and now it has been less than a year for them homeschooling and learning through the calvert school curriculum and this program you can take a test online and get a certificate so if the student wants to go back to other institutional education so it is a big risk for them but it is somehow a good calcuclated risk . Now Hany’s kids are homeschooling with the help of “Atef Rostom” -hany’s friend who is responsible for guiding and helping the kids and his daughter karima in their studies- and this gave them more time to play sports and interact with the “real world” more ,even Ahmed -Hany’s older son - is interested in mobile and computer apps and tries to see lectures and read about it and Hany is helping him by getting him access to a programming company where he tested some of their apps as a user and saw how the process of programming is done.
The Kids faced some problems at first about the change in the way of learning and mainly because of the english language level but they are improving in a good pace. The idea of homeschooling in Egypt -in the words of Hany- is scary for some people like the idea of revolution and for others they don’t have time to think for a solution for this problem because of the daily tiring work they do in order to make a living. but on the other hand there people interested in the idea and always asks how to do it. This was a another scene in the homeschooling community in Egypt which is growing and have different directions and systems
source :interview with Hany Elgamal
scene 3
In the heart of Islamic Cairo in Elgouria , you can find a place called CILAS “Cairo Institute of Libral Arts and Sciences” -– this part would be about the way of teaching/learning they adopted which is discussion based learning and how their connections with the community like the refeguee schools in Egypt and what was the obstacle faced in order to set up a libral arts school in egypt in the first place and what other obstacles they face now ---------------
scene 4
In the last year in his studies in the mechanical department in the faculty of Engineering ,Amr decided to quit school and continue with his start up company Simpion ---- this part would be about the problem that faces young entrepreneurs and the connection between university education with the work environment ----- and would end up with a general call for participation and sharing the stories with us -------------------
a side note I tried to make a small list of initiatives that we can invite to participate in the project and for Egyptians on the forum can you pleas add others :
- ana moubasher , rsd , mosereen …on street journalism - receylopedia , Simpion , el maqar ,…,and other startups - eltahrir academy , alwan we awtar …for alternative education - BEE’iE , karmsolar , …environmental issues - harras map , and other anti harassment initiatives -tadamon ,nebny , AYB ,on urban issues and development projects -----------------------------
the arabic version of the 1st 2 scenes
لو انت ماشى على الدائرى فى المنطقه بين محور 26 يوليو و صفط اللبن ,حتعدى على نزله المعتمديه . النزله دى مختلفه عن باقى نزلات الدائرى ,دى مش الحكومه اللى عملاها دى اللى عملها اهالى منطقه المعتمديه فى التلات شهور اللى بعد سقوط مبارك اهالى المعتمديه انتهزوا فرصه انيهار الاجهزه الامنيه و عملوا نزله من على الطريق الدائرى .
المعتمديه زيها زى مناطق كتير غير رسميه مقطوعه عن الطريق السريع اللى جمبها وده بيسببلهم مشكله يوميه فى المواصلات بس الناس عموما دايما بيلاقوا حلول بسيطه للمشاكل دى زى بنا شويه سلالم بتودى لمحطات الميكروباص غير الرسميه و ده دايما بيبقى مصاحبه نصبه شاى ,قهوه ومحلات تصليح سيارات.
المشروع ده مش صغير دول 4 نزلات زى النزلات الرسميه كلف مليون جنيه و ساهم فيه اهالى المنطقه مع جمعيه المعتمديه بلدنا . مش بس كده دول سجلوا المشروع كله فى فيديو وبعتوا دعوه بيه للمحافظ و رئيس الشرطه لافتتاح النزله.
ده كان مشهد من التدخلات الغير رسميه فى العمران المصرى عرفنا عن طريق كلستر و ممكن تعرف اكتر عن طريق المطبوعه
دى اللى هى مصدر الرئيسى للقصه
المشهد التانى
فى نفس الوقت فى مكان اخر من القاهره هانى الجمل خاف على ولاده لايضيعوا فى متاهات التعليم . لقى المدارس بتقتل حاجات كتير فى الاولاد ,كل يوم من سته ونص لاربعه ونص فى المدرسه من المعادى للتجمع . الولد بيرجع معندوش طاقه ولا وقت انه يلعب ويحل الواجب و يذاكر وبقى ينموا فىه حته انه عايز الاجابه على الاسئله بسرعه بالمعلقه عشان معندوش لاوقت ولا طاقه انه يدور بنفسه على الاجابات , ده غير انه بيقعد طول الوقت فى المدرسه سلبى بيسمع بس مش بيعمل حاجه والمناهج نفسها فيها مشاكل كتيره جدا. هانى -عنده ولدين احمد فى اولى اعدادى وكريم فى تالته ابتدائى- اخد القرار انه يطلع ولاده من المدرسه ويعلمهم من البيت. طبعا الولاد كانوا فى منتهى السعاده بالقرار ده و دلوقتى بقالهم اقل من سنه بره المدرسه بيتعلموا عن طريق نظام امريكى calvert school ده بتمتحن اونلاين وبكده يطلع للولد شهاده لوحب يدخل مدرسه او يكمل فى التعليم النظامى. طبعا الكلام ده فى مخاطره بس محسوبه الى حد ما . دلوقتى الاولاد بيتعلموا وبيدورا بنفسهم وبمساعده “عاطف رستم” - صديق هانى وبيقوم بتعليم اولاد هانى وبنته كريمه -و بيديهم فرصه اكتر انهم يتمرنوا رياضه و يحتكوا بالناس اكتر وده مش ماثر على حياتهم الاجتماعيه بره المدرسه بالعكس الاولاد بيتطوروا على المستوى الانسانى اكتر بكتير مما كانوا فى المدرسه .دلوقتى الولد الكبير مهتم بالبرمجيات و بيحاول يقرا ويشوف محاضرات عنها و بيساعده هانى انه يروح شركه برمجيات يساعده فى تجريب البرامج كمستخدم ويشوف عمليه البرمجه بتتم ازاى.الاولاد قابلتهم بعض المشاكل فى الاول فى تغيير اسلوب الدراسه بسبب مستوى اللغه الانجليزيه بس بيتقدموا بسرعه كويسه . فكره التعليم من البيت على حد قول هانى فى ناس كتير طبعا خايفين زى الثوره كده او معندهمش وقت انهم يفكروا فى حل للمشكله نتيجه للساقيه اليوميه اللى هم ,على الجانب الاخر فى ناس كتير مهتمه تعرف اكتر و عايزه تعرف ازاى ممكن تعمل كده مع اولادها. ده كان احد المشاهد من مجتمع التعليم فى البيت فى مصر اللى بينموا كل شويه وفى اتجاهات مختلفه ونظم تانيه كتير