So Women's Representation Will Become Effective
Training Women Activists to Become Leaders
- By Madlen Nader, program participant
Published in the Watani newspaper on Aug. 12, 2009
It's no longer strange to see women reaching leadership positions in different work sectors – as university presidents, ministers, ambassadors, judges, etc., in addition to the increase in their representation in Parliament. State institutions, civil society organizations, and political parties have begun successful experiments in training and qualifying women for work in leadership positions and as social activists. Lately, the Online Activism Institute cooperated with the Egyptian Center for Development and Democratic Studies in a project to train women leaders, and it turned out to be a successful experience for a number of the women.
Mr. Mohamed Abdallah, project coordinator for the Egyptian Center for Development and Democratic Studies, spoke to us about the project:
"The idea of the Online Activism Institute began with the founding of the Center for Liberty in the Middle East. It's a training website that provides scholastic scholarships. The Institute chose two regional partners in the Arab countries – the Egyptian Center for Development and Democratic Studies in Egypt and a center in Jordan – to implement this project. 60 participants have been trained, and there are successful examples who have implemented their training practically in their work, and who have used what they learned in training in a positive way. The training gives them the ability to work successfully in society, in a correct, measured way."
After becoming familiar with some of the foundations of the training, we had to talk with the most distinguished examples of success from the participants. So we met with Dr. Manal Elnahhas, general director of the Model Projects Department in the National Organization for Urban Harmony in the Ministry of Culture. We spoke with her on the importance of training like this to prepare women leaders. She said:
"I benefited from the training in a practical way in the project [I'm working on] to restore Cairo’s cultural face, especially in Cairo's historic areas. Although the project's goal is to restore lost aesthetic values to these buildings by eliminating all the violations that were committed over the past years, we began with wrong methods. We began work without a plan to take into account the nature of those places and the people in them, like shopkeepers in these kinds of historic areas. So we met with strong resistance, but through the courses I took, I acquired some leadership skills and learned how to work in a measured, organized way.
"So I began defining my target audience that I'd work with on the project and defining the kind of message directed to them so it would be effective. For the urban harmony project, we defined our main audience to include: Cairo's governor, the local leaders who supervise the different areas of the project, and members of Parliament and the local council. Furthermore, shopkeepers in the area were one of our targeted audiences because of their [personal/business] interests. So we held meetings with them to explain the project's goal and how it would benefit them. The result was good; after they understood the project, we gained a large number of supporters for the project among shopkeepers, and they helped us finish our work."
As for Eglal Salem, chairman of the executive board of El-Eglal Association to care for children of low-income families in Bassatine and member of the Cairo Governorate Council for the Bassatine district, she spoke about her beneficial training experience:
"The training was very useful to me for its role in developing my skills for work, like using computers and the internet, and giving me the chance to do a successful activism plan for my work to reach my goals. After the training, I changed myself; that is, I got to know my weaknesses and strengths, and I began putting together a team in a better way, and I chose the good elements that would benefit our work.
"Although I was an activist and official for an association before the training, I think this kind of training is very important for women, especially considering the current situation and the increase in women's representation in Parliament and leadership positions in general. I'd like this kind of training to be extended, not limited to just a project done for only a year or two."
Adel Esmat, a trainer for the Activism Institute, points out that training like this raises [women's level of] necessary skills for work and qualifies a lot of women to become leaders in society. So the Institute pays attention to a number of things, foremost being the creation of training materials by specialists in administration and political science, both in and out of Egypt. [Program trainers] also take care to choose trainees who have real interest in an issue they want to work on as activists for society's sake.
Hosam Shaheen, one of the staff members for the "Leaders of the Future" project, emphasized the importance of training like this, especially after the rise in women's representation in the People’s Council and in a number of areas in the state; he believes the training materials can change voters' nature and raise their awareness in the long run.
Training Women Activists to Become Leaders
- By Madlen Nader, program participant
Published in the Watani newspaper on Aug. 12, 2009
It's no longer strange to see women reaching leadership positions in different work sectors – as university presidents, ministers, ambassadors, judges, etc., in addition to the increase in their representation in Parliament. State institutions, civil society organizations, and political parties have begun successful experiments in training and qualifying women for work in leadership positions and as social activists. Lately, the Online Activism Institute cooperated with the Egyptian Center for Development and Democratic Studies in a project to train women leaders, and it turned out to be a successful experience for a number of the women.
Mr. Mohamed Abdallah, project coordinator for the Egyptian Center for Development and Democratic Studies, spoke to us about the project:
"The idea of the Online Activism Institute began with the founding of the Center for Liberty in the Middle East. It's a training website that provides scholastic scholarships. The Institute chose two regional partners in the Arab countries – the Egyptian Center for Development and Democratic Studies in Egypt and a center in Jordan – to implement this project. 60 participants have been trained, and there are successful examples who have implemented their training practically in their work, and who have used what they learned in training in a positive way. The training gives them the ability to work successfully in society, in a correct, measured way."
After becoming familiar with some of the foundations of the training, we had to talk with the most distinguished examples of success from the participants. So we met with Dr. Manal Elnahhas, general director of the Model Projects Department in the National Organization for Urban Harmony in the Ministry of Culture. We spoke with her on the importance of training like this to prepare women leaders. She said:
"I benefited from the training in a practical way in the project [I'm working on] to restore Cairo’s cultural face, especially in Cairo's historic areas. Although the project's goal is to restore lost aesthetic values to these buildings by eliminating all the violations that were committed over the past years, we began with wrong methods. We began work without a plan to take into account the nature of those places and the people in them, like shopkeepers in these kinds of historic areas. So we met with strong resistance, but through the courses I took, I acquired some leadership skills and learned how to work in a measured, organized way.
"So I began defining my target audience that I'd work with on the project and defining the kind of message directed to them so it would be effective. For the urban harmony project, we defined our main audience to include: Cairo's governor, the local leaders who supervise the different areas of the project, and members of Parliament and the local council. Furthermore, shopkeepers in the area were one of our targeted audiences because of their [personal/business] interests. So we held meetings with them to explain the project's goal and how it would benefit them. The result was good; after they understood the project, we gained a large number of supporters for the project among shopkeepers, and they helped us finish our work."
As for Eglal Salem, chairman of the executive board of El-Eglal Association to care for children of low-income families in Bassatine and member of the Cairo Governorate Council for the Bassatine district, she spoke about her beneficial training experience:
"The training was very useful to me for its role in developing my skills for work, like using computers and the internet, and giving me the chance to do a successful activism plan for my work to reach my goals. After the training, I changed myself; that is, I got to know my weaknesses and strengths, and I began putting together a team in a better way, and I chose the good elements that would benefit our work.
"Although I was an activist and official for an association before the training, I think this kind of training is very important for women, especially considering the current situation and the increase in women's representation in Parliament and leadership positions in general. I'd like this kind of training to be extended, not limited to just a project done for only a year or two."
Adel Esmat, a trainer for the Activism Institute, points out that training like this raises [women's level of] necessary skills for work and qualifies a lot of women to become leaders in society. So the Institute pays attention to a number of things, foremost being the creation of training materials by specialists in administration and political science, both in and out of Egypt. [Program trainers] also take care to choose trainees who have real interest in an issue they want to work on as activists for society's sake.
Hosam Shaheen, one of the staff members for the "Leaders of the Future" project, emphasized the importance of training like this, especially after the rise in women's representation in the People’s Council and in a number of areas in the state; he believes the training materials can change voters' nature and raise their awareness in the long run.