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There are three accredited Egyptian NGOs participating in WSIS:
1. Arab Publishers Association
Address: P.O. Box 33 Panorama, Nasr City, Egypt.
Brief summary of purpose and
activities:
The Arab Publishers Association is an independent association representing the Arab
Publishers in the Arab and International arena. Its main goal is to develop the publishing
industry in the Arab region and enforce the intellectual property rights and promoting
freedom of expression, publishing, and reading.
2. Resala Organization
Address: 5 Mansy Yasin St. off 209 Faisal St., Tawabek Station, Egypt.
Brief summary of purpose and activities:
Resala started wit a group of young active individuals from the faculty of engineering in
Cairo University. Their main goal is helping others and spreading the culture of
volunteerism. Its projects comprise ICT for Illiteracy Eradication conjointly with the
Ministry of ICT, the UNDP and an Italian Cooperation, that is, preparing literacy
classes using computers and teaching the illiterate. Computers courses are also set up for
disabled people. Resala has various branches in different areas in Cairo as well as in
Alexandria.
3. Cooperation between ICT Trust Fund and the NGOs:
The ICT Trust Fund's main purpose is to use ICTs to further development in Egypt by increasing awareness of its benefits, and by making it more accessible and affordable to all citizens. Through a series of coordinated initiatives, the Fund empowers communities by providing access to appropriate information. ICTs can open up a new world for adults and children alike, widen their horizons and increase their future opportunities. As part of the ICT Trust Fund strategy to ensure the community involvement and to find the needs of the target groups, the project management is keen to work with community based organizations to ensure the involvement of the people. Not only that but also to ensure the availability of access points and technical support to the users, which will facilitate their access to the ICT TF services.
In order to effectively use and assess the relevance of the content available on the Community Development portal and to widespread the usage of the illiteracy eradication CD at the grass root level, the ICT Trust Fund created a network of more than 50 local NGOs from different governorates to provide community services to direct beneficiaries using ICT TF tools and content. NGOs worked as a "Guided Access Point" providing ICT access and resources to the local community but in relation with their needs. A "Knowledge and Information officer" is present to orient visitors and guide them to use ICT tools and the Internet to respond to a need they might have related to Employment, Health, Agriculture, edutainment, etc. Those Access Points work as a center for Self and Community Development. NGOs also conducted field researches about "ICT for Development" and Information needs assessments as well as social marketing activities such as seminars, workshops, meetings to raise local community awareness about the potential of ICTs for Human, Social and Economic development.
The ICT Trust Fund is
collaborating with selected NGOs that are already parts
of a wide national network such as the Muslim and
Christian Youth Associations, the Scouts and Guides
organization, CEOSS, the Red Crescent, El-Gameya El
Shareya organizations, etc. A national workshop was
organized in October 2005 to bring together
representatives from national NGO networks to stimulate
them to play a role in bridging the digital divide and
transferring the available knowledge to needy
communities. "Knowledge Bridging and building
the information society
" is the core message that the ICT Trust Fund is conveying to NGOs to integrate Knowledge is a prime component in all of their already existing activities.
A workshop was organized on 27th and 28th of July 2005 at the Smart Village bringing together more than 40 NGOs coming from six different governorates to discuss achievements, limitations and concepts. An introductory session was conducted by prominent speakers about Arabic E-content; its importance, problems and potential NGO's role in building it. In the second session, each NGO presented activities related to ICT for Development. Some of them developed special training courses for kids, others used some available feasibility studies on the Community Development Portal to launch new Businesses, others contributed to content generation by feeding the Portal with their knowledge related to SMEs, health, culture, etc., others opened new classes for illiteracy eradication using the multimedia CDROM. Some NGOs used available content on the Portal to teach girls from villages some handicrafts. Another NGO created a local web site to document local culture heritage. Many NGOs decided to integrate ICT in their activities to become an important support tool relevant to any type of needs. ICT is considered now for many of them as an enabler and accelerator for achieving the MDGs.
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