Home: Egypt
OAI courses: Create Your Activism Plan workshop; Create Your Activism Plan mentorship with Stephanie Vance
Vision: "I would like to change some wrong cultural concepts like abuse of marginalized segments of society (like women, children, and people with special needs). For example, people treat those with special needs with pity, not from the perspective that they are human beings and citizens who have the same rights and duties as others."
Goal: "Educate the disabled about their rights and how they can get these rights."
Message: "Together we support disabled people to get their rights."
Primary audience: Egyptians with special needs
How I deliver my message: Through the media (Watani newspaper column)
Coalitions/allies: Civil society institutions that work on issues involving disabled people, and human rights organizations
Current activities: Writing a weekly column in the Watani newspaper, "Ehna Maak" (We Are With You), designed to help the disabled get their rights
About Madlen and her activism goals:
Madlen, age 31, is a journalist at the Watani weekly newspaper (Egypt’s main Coptic paper). Her activism goal is raising awareness of the issues facing people with disabilities in Egyptian society.
What Madlen learned from her OAI experience:
"I learned how to build an activism plan, choose a targeted audience, and define priorities so my work will be more organized and purposeful. On a personal level, I got to know a lot of people who are interested in development and human rights, including both trainers and participants."
"[During the mentorship] I gained new organization skills and learned how to work in an organized, scientific way, and that I should always have back-up plans before beginning anything. I learned a lot about how to do an activism plan that would fit all the information and resources currently available to me, and how to develop it and make it better. My favorite aspect of the mentorship was gaining new, different experience in how to run a successful, effective activism plan. I also liked getting to know some women activists and pioneers, whether trainers or participants. Stephanie Vance was excellent; she presented the material in a simplified way and was very encouraging to us, which helped us be creative and persevere."
The actions Madlen has taken as a result of her OAI experience:
"Through my work at the Watani newspaper, I began developing my column "Ehna Maak" (We Are With You) which deals with issues facing the disabled. And I began looking for organizations to help me in this field. I also communicated with some activists from the previous OAI courses and learned about their experiences and how they began work, in order to benefit from their experiences."
Madlen has written an article about the OAI in the Watani newspaper. You can view a translated version of the article here.