Challenges Worldwide
Project Proposal
Host Organisation:
Nahdet el Mahrousa
Location:
Egypt
Context, aims, and initial thoughts on methodology and data:
Nahdet el Mahrousa (NM), meaning “Renaissance of Egypt”, is an innovative Egyptian civil
society organization that seeks to make a positive and lasting impact on Egypt’s cultural,
economic, and social development by activating and engaging young professionals. By
leveraging the ideas and power of social innovation, NM engages social entrepreneurs to
solve some of Egypt’s toughest development challenges.
Over the past eight years, NM has created an ecosystem to foster social entrepreneurship in
Egypt and to support the advancement, development, and scaling-up of social start-ups and
enterprises in Egypt. NM’s flagship program, the “Incubator of Innovative Social Enterprises”,
empowers high-potential social entrepreneurs to act as drivers of social innovation in Egypt.
The incubator identifies and supports social entrepreneurs by providing capacity-building,
technical support, access to networks, and seed funding. Using NM’s innovative approaches
and partnerships as a base, NM's social entrepreneurs build successful, scalable, and
sustainable models addressing social issues in Egypt.
NM has identified seven social start-ups in need of support. Ideally, 5 students will undertake
research to support these businesses with 2 students researching 2, and the rest
researching 1 business each. The businesses cover a wide range of industries and sectors,
they include; Red Tomato, a social development theatre group; Nawaya, an agricultural
development organisation; CORD, a technology awareness raising group; HarassMap, a
social initiative which uses new technologies for public safety; Bosletak, a technology pioneer
and education organisation; and The Nile Project, which curate cross cultural collaborations
among musicians in the Nile region.
Initial ideas on the type of report to be produced:
This particular project focuses on Red Tomato.
Red Tomato (Outa Hamra) is a clowning theatre group that combines street drama and
societal development. A team of clown artists use performances in marginalized areas of
Egypt to raise awareness about issues related to street children and refugees, and
individualized workshop programs to help develop the mental health of street children.
The organisation is searching for expertise on best practices and methods for using the arts
to a) improve mental health, and/or b) raise broad awareness on social issues. A research
report, along with suggested best practices and tools, will help the team improve the social
impact of their performances, workshops, and other programming.
Any additional requirements (e.g. specific skills the student should have)
This project would be suitable to a theatre or drama student with an interest in the role of
using the arts for international development.
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