محضر:في 18-03-2013 لقاء مع سيما دياب - العمل المجتمعي مع لاجئي سوريا في مصر

Minutes of Meeting with Sima Diab Tadamon Centre for the Support of the Syrian Community

Date: March 18, 2013 at 10:30 - 14:00

Venue: At ADEF - Baydar

Attendees:

• Sima Diab, Founder of the Community Center

damascusrebel@gmail.com

• Ranwa Yehia, ADEF Director
• Noha El Shoky, ADEF Development Officer

Agenda of the meeting

• Background on Sima Diab
• Background on the start-up and development of the Community Center
• Community Center partner NGOs
• Activities and support currently provided through the Community Center
• Projects in the pipeline
• Background on ADEF’s operations
• Potential areas of cooperation with ADEF
• Nest steps

Background on Sima Diab

• Award: 2012 refugee prize for independent activist.
• Academic background: Communication strategy.
• Worked in Baghdad for the Iraqi Media Network.

Project start-up and background

• We are not about charity. We empower.
• Outreach: thousands from all over Cairo.
• Proposal was written in March 2012. Nobody listened September 2012. Funding came in October Doors were open in December 2012.
• The center includes all factions of the Syrian society. We have Salafi and Ikhwan, Marxist, atheist etc
• The community center is the first of its kind for Syrians anywhere.
• Original idea was for the center to become hub for partnership everywhere

Blog: http://syndicatingfreedom.wordpress.com/ Website: under development, no domain yet

Partner NGOs:

• Altadamon: runs three community centers working with refugees in Egypt http://www.altadamun.org/
• Pstic: Psychosocial training institute in Cairo. Not registered
• Both are funded by Terre des Hommes through UNHCR
• Townhouse: micro grants training

The Community Center offers support in the areas of:

• Micro grants through Altadamon
• Legal advise on residency
• Community service (physical place for sharing ideas)
• A women’s forum
• Child protection: (Fatma at Altadamon is taking a training on child protection)
• Destitution,
• Marriage consultation
• Art classes for children
• Community theatre
• Mother’s day event
• English classes for adults and children
• Computer literacy (12-13 computers): just set up ten days ago
• French classes
• 9 Syrian psychosocial support (pick up cases with UNHCR from all around Egypt
• Links to jobs
• Mental and physical handicaps
• 2 Psychosocial experts are specialized in autism

Projects in the pipeline:

• Outreach: thousands from all over Cairo
• Community outreach project: to work with UNHCR (unbiased, inclusive)
• Digitizing everything we do in the center
• There will be an online space mimicking the physical space
• Planet 360: Tarek Nasser (built a proposal)
• Smart map: mapping NGOs in Cairo, Alexandria
• Sports summer camp with Wadi Degla Sporting Club. Needs to be finalized by end of April 2013

Background on ADEF’s operations:

• Arab Digital Expression Camps (ADEC) http://info.arabdigitalexpression.org/en , http://arabdigitalexpression.org/programs/camps was inspired from the 1980ies Arab Computer Camps (Compu Camps: age 8 – 18)
• First ADEC was implemented in 2007. On history of our camps:
• Camps are about expression. The core is finding your own voice, then sharing it in various tools: video, sound, crafts, theatre, sports, stop motion etc.
• Camp is a two week life changing experience
• First grant was the Ashoka Fellowship: https://www.ashoka.org/fellow/ranwa-yehia
• Team supported ADEC for the first two years
• First year camp was Egyptian-Palestinian as we got funding for Palestinian youngsters
• 2007 camp was our pilot and 2008 was the culmination of lessons learned
• ADEC works with 60% underprivileged who are fully funded
• ADEC works with middle and upper middle scholarships with ½ scholarships
• ADEC markets the camps to rich children
• Every three/four fully paying children cover one underprivileged youngster
• ADEC got its first funding in 2009 from Nassej: http://www.naseej-cyd.org/en/naseej_program.php?sm=2&tm=1?tm=1
• Aim was to business for development model
• ADEF was registered in 2009
• ADEF conducted a community mapping exercise for all potential partners in Mokattam the report for which can be found at: المسح المجتمعي للمقطم 2012
• Only link to Syrian community is through the Syrian open source activist community

Potential areas for cooperation:

• Call to Partner NGOs for the 2013 ADEC: [[معسكر التعبير الرقمي العربي السابع 2013 ]]
• Setting up the Syrian Community Center technically
• ADEF has a fund for 5 Syrian youngsters (3 girls and 2 boys between 12-15 years)
• Establish a Digital Expression Community Area (DECA) http://arabdigitalexpression.org/deca at the Syrian Community Center
• ADEF works with open source software to correspond to our open culture values. ADEF can set the Community Center up in that area
• Sima can dedicate a few computers for open source software
• Ranwa is connected with the Egyptian Autistic Society http://egyptautism.com/
• There is already a candidate male youngster for the 2013 camp
• Include community workers from the Community Center in our ToT workshops

Next steps:

• An initial partnership meeting with Fatma Idris from Altadamon would be very beneficial at the Community Center on the 26th with: Ranwa Yehia, Ali Shaath, Gehan Shaaban: Camp Coordinator and Partnership Manager, and Mohamed Ammar: Network Administration Manager. With Wessam (Director) and Susan (Programming Officer). Confirmation needed
• Schedule a field visit to the Community Center scouting for potential campers
• Link Abdeljaleel with the Egyptian Autistic Society. Sima will speak with Dr Nancy who runs Pstic
• Launch a call for reach out to Syrian youngsters between 12-15. Selection of youngsters usually takes place by end of April 2013
• ADEF will send a link to the registration form for the camps to Sima by end of March 2013
• A movie/information night featuring previous camp videos will be scheduled at the community center. Amr Gad (ADEF Media and PR Officer) is preparing a DVD with three movies featuring the camps and give to Ammar to take along to ADEF’s 26th of March visit to the Community Center