Year of Implementation: 2015-2024
Community Service Component: October 2020- September 2021
Community Service:
Community service is a vital component of HEI program, executed by Etijah. The main objective of this component is to help HEI students to identify community development issues and mobilize youth to use their skills to find applicable solutions through involvement in community service activities in their local communities where they volunteer as part of giving back to their governorates, enhance their leadership skills, and contribute to the development in Egypt at large through investing in its human capital.
This component is mainly implemented through the placement of HEI students in Non-Governmental Organizations operating in various geographical areas across Egypt. The component also encourages the students to create their own social initiatives that fill certain developmental gaps in local communities.
Impact:
During the 2020-21 academic year, 300 students in 5 different Universities have executed a total of 20,457 voluntary hours of community service including 3,152 hours executed in Ain Shams University, 3,322.5 hours were executed in Alexandria University, 5,511 hours were executed in Assiut University, 4,630.5 hours were executed in Cairo University, 3,841 hours were executed in Mansoura University. Of the students who executed community service this year, 62 were from Ain Shams University, 54 were from Alexandria University, 50 were from Assiut University, 85 were from Cairo, and 49 were from Mansoura University.
Collectively, HEI students served their communities this year in sectors such as; Education, Child Protection, Health, Culture and Arts, Service Relief, Sports, Women Empowerment, Environment, Humanitarian, Animals Rights, Economic Empowerment, and Senior Citizens through a total of 83 NGOs and 134 initiatives.
Camp purpose:
The Community Service Camp was organized by Etijah in the fourth quarter of 2021 in order to build the capacity of HEI students on designing and leading volunteering initiatives and Instill a sense of ownership of their initiative in order to work on a variety of issues and to critically engage in community challenges, and design localized proposed solutions in a sustainable manner.
Camp Details:
The camp was attended by 64 students (34 females and 30 males) from Cohort Five and lasted from the 25th until the 28th of September. The camp aimed to instill a sense of ownership for the students’ initiatives and their community service activities and increase the sustainability of their voluntary activities further beyond the scope of the scholarship through the different activities conducted over the four days divided into a series of workshops, discussions, and assignments with the aid of the selected facilitators from cohort four who also helped in peer-to-peer workshops.
The different sessions of the camp included capacity building sessions on volunteerism, teamwork, leadership, communication skills, conflict management, negotiation skills, writing proposals, fundraising, and constructing initiatives’ theories of change. These different topics were addressed through interactive activities including Sports, brainstorming workshops, presentations, peer-to-peer guidance sessions, and the students’ own presentations.