It is with great sadness that we inform you of the passing of Mr. Abdel Salam Al Anwar, our former treasurer and board member. Mr. Abdel Salam passed away on Friday. He had been a valued member of our team since 1998 until 2012 and will be missed.
He also assumed the role of Fomer Chairman of HSBC Bank and board member of the Central Bank of Egypt.
Following the “Dragon Storm” which pummeled Egypt in March, the Professional Development Foundation (PDF) in cooperation with the Ministry of Social Solidarity (MOSS) stepped up to create impact through re-equipping the houses affected by torrential rains and destructive winds in the village of Al-Dasmi, Al-Saf Center in Giza Governorate.
In an attempt to acquire adequate housing and help flood affected families, PDF has provided Al-Dasmi’s families with some of the properties that have been damaged by the devastating storm, which include, but are not limited to: refrigerators, beds, and stoves.
It is worth noting that PDF was able to provide assistance and meet the needs of One Hundred and Fifty families within a very short period of time.
The Civil Society Support Center delivered 8 online workshops and 4 webinars for more than 70 NGOs in 16 governorates across Egypt.
The workshops and webinars covered the following topics:
Online Workshops:
Crisis Management, 3 rounds
Foundational Leadership
Adapting to change
Entrepreneurship
Digital Archiving
Digital Marketing
Webinars:
Stress Management
Culture of the team
Adapting to change
Adapting to Change and Integrating Technology
Winners of the fourth edition of the Excellence Award from the Professional Development Foundation (PDF) were honored in a celebration at the Giza Pyramids earlier this week under the auspices of the Ministry of Social Solidarity.
The annual award aims at promoting NGOs who contribute to solving the problems of society.
The winner of the first prize, valued at LE150,000, was Konouz Al-Bardawil of the Association for Comprehensive Development in North Sinai. The award was granted for the association’s project to increase the quality of fish and reduce marine hazards in Al-Bardawil Lake.
In second place came the Association for the Rehabilitation of the Hearing-Impaired in Cairo. The LE100,000 award was given to Nidaa Association for the Rehabilitation of Deaf Children for their efforts with children with hearing and visual needs.
Giza’s Association of Friends of the National Heart Institute won third place and LE75,000 for “Better Job Opportunity for a Better Life”. The Bedaya Association for Charity in Giza came fourth with LE50,000 for providing children’s incubators.
For the first time, PDF presented the award for the best association to raise awareness. The award went to Bedaya which was presented the prize at the celebration attended by NGOs representatives, development experts, and public figures interested in development projects.
Since its launch in 2016, more than 800 NGOs participated in the NGOs Award of Excellence competition. In 2019, over 300 NGOs applied to take part, and only 13 civil society associations made it to the final round.
Cooperation protocol between PDF & Injaz was signed in order to fund the business skills as well as the technical training for 100 graduates of “San3ety” program, which seeks to qualify graduates of technical institutes and prepare them for excellence in the labor market through the development of personal and technical skills according to the needs of the labor market.
Total graduates 121 with Specialization Tracks:
Employment Rate: 81%
Professional Development Foundation launched the fifteenth round of the NGOs Capacity Building Program on November 17, 2019, which lasted until January 9, 2020.
The program witnessed a strong attendance by NGOs, as 25 NGOs applied to attend from five different governorates: Cairo, Al-Sharqia, Al-Gharbia, Kafr El-Sheikh, and Minya. The program was attended by 45 representatives from 15 NGOs, divided into decision-makers, middle management and employees.
Each of the participating NGOs presented a graduation project in the presence of their Chairman to a committee from Professional Development Foundation.
Within the framework of Hayah Karima “a decent life” initiative launched by President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, which aims to alleviate poverty in the most needy villages in various governorates of Egypt, PDF has succeeded in raising the efficiency of 175 homes in the villages of Al-Hikma and Al-Manar in Nasr El-Nuba Center in Aswan Governorate. Thirty-one families received their homes in the presence of Major General Ashraf Attia, Governor of Aswan, and Mohamed Farouk Hafeez, PDF Chairman, during the province's celebration of its national day.
Attia directed authorities in Aswan Governorate and their directorates to intensify the efforts made in Hayah Karima initiative in order for the citizen to feel the improvement in the quality of life as soon as possible.
In addition, Hafeez said that PDF seeks to provide integrated solutions to improve the quality of life for sectors of the poorest villages' residents that are located in Upper Egypt by joining forces with a number of government agencies, the private sector and NGOs through the presidential initiative, and in cooperation with the Ministry of Social Solidarity.
Moreover, Hafeez pointed out that Al-Hikma Village is among the poorest villages that the foundation is working on developing in all areas including: health services, providing basic facilities for the family and society, providing vocational and technical education, creating job opportunities, improving homes, as well as providing sanitation and clean water connections.
He added that handing over 175 houses is considered as a first stage to raise the efficiency of houses in the villages of Al-Hikma and Al-Manar, at a total cost exceeding 20 million Egyptian pounds.
PDF has, since its inception, supported a number of fields, including the field of education development and raising the efficiency of the administrative system in both the public and private sectors, in addition to the institutional building of civil society organizations, and not to mention the number of scholarship graduates which exceeded more than 100 thousand graduates with employment rates exceeding 90%.
Hafeez also highlighted that Hayah Karima initiative came to achieve and support PDF’s vision which includes that the real entrance to development begins with the development of the human being, through raising the level of quality of services provided to him/her.
PDF & Helwan University signed a cooperation protocol to fund 4 masters in Heritage Conservation and Site Management.
TechSoup team conducted a fundraising workshop at Pyramisa Hotel that was attended by the decision makers of 17 NGOs.
It's worth mentioning that TechSoupEgypt added a new group of donor partners to its list to provide 132 donated and discounted products from 12 of the world's leading technology developers.
