14 December 2002

Cairo: The Informal Volunteer Network Egypt, a group of non-governmental organizations (NGOs), today introduced the country's first Open Volunteer Day, an exhibition of volunteer work in Egypt, to commemorate International Volunteer Day (IVD).

The Open Volunteer Day, attended by more than 300 people, provided opportunities to exchange views about volunteerism and development in Egypt, expansion of volunteer networks and new ideas and trends in volunteerism amongst volunteers, volunteer-involved organizations, government and United Nations representatives. It was also an occasion to recognize the real contribution of volunteers to the society and acknowledge the value of their work.

The celebration opened with a speech from H.E. Dr Mostafa Abdel Kader, Minister of Local Development. He stressed the importance of volunteerism in developing the Egyptian society from within and the crucial role played by Egyptian youth, the government, development agencies and NGOs to make a difference in the lives of millions of people.

UN Environment Programme Goodwill Ambassador George Kurdahy, added that volunteer work could help solve some of the crises that the Arab world is currently facing. "In Egypt, the nature of volunteer work has been shifting, in recent years from almost exclusively charity work to development. For example, one of the organizers of this event, Fat'het Kheir, an NGO made up only of volunteers, works with a poor community towards a more decent life for its people. They offer microcredit schemes, emergency funds, and literacy training among others. The intuition is, that many more volunteer-based organizations work in the same area but numbers and concrete figures are still missing. We hope that next year, in partnership with other interested stakeholders, we will be able to come up with a clearer picture of the volunteer world in this country," he said.

Dr. Hossam Badrawi, member of the People's Assembly and Chairman of the Education Committee, said that Egypt has known volunteer work for centuries and the Egyptian youth have always given their time and lives for the progress of their society. Nowadays, Egyptian youth are changing the perspective to volunteer work in order to make it more relevant to their reality and experience.

Coca Cola and Procter and Gamble sponsored the event and intend to get more involved with the Informal Volunteer Network Egypt through corporate volunteerism.

Some 26 volunteer-based organizations, including the Youth Association for Population and Development, the Red Crescent, the Association for the Development of Volunteer Efforts, Caritas, the Ministry of Youth, Egypt's craft centre and the United Nations Volunteers (UNV), distributed publications, posters, brochures to inform the public about their work and volunteering.

The organizers, known as the Informal Volunteer Network Egypt, included the technical bureau of Dr. Hossam Badrawi, the Centre for Development Services, the Youth Association for Population and Development, Fat'het Kheir and UNV in Egypt.

The group intends to start research work on volunteers and volunteerism in Egypt next year and hopes to widen its membership by inviting other local and international volunteer-involved organization to join them.

Message by Antonio Vigilante, UN Resident Coordinator

in Arabic