CAIRO: Initiating activities aimed at engaging students in community service, fostering their efforts toward lifelong commitment and promoting philanthropy in the region are the main objectives of the newly inaugurated John D. Gerhart Center for Philanthropy and Civic Engagement.
The center commemorates Gerhart’s legacy, the ninth president of the American University in Cairo (AUC). Gerhart, who died of cancer in 2003, was a great advocate of community service.
“A lifetime of work in the philanthropic field convinced him that an essential aim of liberal education is to instill values of service and civic responsibility, reads the center’s brochure.
“We want to prepare our students and the entire AUC community to engage in public service, for the public good, says Barbara Ibrahim, the center’s director. “We believe that by getting outside the library and outside of classrooms to actually do some learning in the community, observing and interacting with the real world; they will graduate from AUC not only better prepared for [their] livelihood and profession, but also ready to dedicate a lifelong commitment to improving society.
His wife, Gail, who attended the ceremony, explained that Gerhart grew up in a community that cherished the concept of giving. Throughout the course of his life, Gerhart went from being a recipient to being a professional donor, says Gail, in reference to his career of 29 years at the Ford Foundation.
Besides the self-founded John and Gail Gerhart Public School Scholarship Fund, Gerhart is credited for what the AUC Web site describes as a “historic fund-raising campaign that raised an unprecedented amount of money for the new campus and research and training programs at AUC.
“He saw the work that he did simply as a responsibility, as a duty . never as a crusade Gail adds. “He loved that work because it was intellectually challenging and it brought up the best of his talents and training. Of course, it was grounded in the values that he had absorbed in his early life: generosity, sharing, fairness and service to others.
This giving nature is a trait deeply rooted in the region’s traditions. “AUC is privileged to serve in the Arab world, a region with deep traditions of public giving, generosity, compassion for those in need, says Ibrahim, explaining that individual giving is rooted in the religious traditions, “but the historically important forms of institutional philanthropy, such as awqaf, have not been reinvented in our time.
Sheikha Mozah Bint Nasser Al Missned, wife of Emir of the State of Qatar Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani, expressed similar views during the center’s inauguration ceremony last week. “The Islamic society, since its establishment, has recognized the importance of the foundations that cater to the society’s needs, she said. She noted different institutions such as the waqf, which is the term that refers to the Islamic version of trust funds and philanthropy.
“The role of the civil society’s organizations doesn’t stop at the acceptance and readiness of our society’s to [these organizations], but it depends on our evaluation of the importance of the participation of the entire society, she added.
Gail notes that “philanthropy of course is not new; what’s new is the belief that philanthropy itself can be developed and be made more effective. John saw the potential for this kind of forward-looking, progressive innovation in Egypt and with others he helped lay the groundwork [for this project].
Al Missned reflected on the Qatari experience in developing the concept of philanthropy; in one of her many posts, Al Missned is the chairperson of the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development. She explained that the Qatar Foundation depends in essence on the waqf concept but developed it to increase its reach and influence and to better suit modern times, giving the example of acquiring strategic partners in the field of development. She also noted the crucial role of political support for such efforts.
Likewise, the Gerhart Center plans to partner with other organizations in the realm of development. With eradication of illiteracy currently topping the center’s agenda, Ibrahim explained that there are different groups within the AUC community active in this field.
“What we hope to see happen is that in partnerships in the communities where we work there will be joint definitions of problems, rather than AUC deciding here at this podium what we want to address, adds Ibrahim.
