CAIRO: A campaign by television presenter Amr Adib managed to raise enough money to build 880 houses to help Aswan flood victims, garnering donations from architects, ministers, celebrities and even electrical appliance companies.
Launched on the popular talk show “Al-Qahera Al-Youm earlier this week, donations almost instantly poured in from all over the Arab world, which Adib described as a symbol of “Arab unity.
When renowned Egyptian architect Mamdouh Hamza learned about Adib’s campaign, he contacted him and offered to design the houses free of charge.
Hamza went to Aswan last week to examine the 100-acre piece of land the governorate donated for the project, and worked on the design right away, giving Adib an estimate of cost and a list of the materials needed.
Each house will cost approximately LE 30,000 and will be built on a 250-meter block, of which 65 meters will be allocated for the actual building. It will take approximately three weeks to build a house and the entire project is scheduled to be completed in three to four months.
The campaign is collecting the money on behalf of The Islamic Mowasa Association. “Our association has been building schools and education institutions in the area [Aswan] ever since its foundation in 1910; and even though we are called the Islamic Mowasa Association we work for both Muslims and Copts, said Gaber Awad Sayed, its president, adding that the vice president of the association is a Copt.
In an unexpected turn of events, when donations reached LE 13.5 million, Egyptian Minister of Finance Youssef Boutros Ghali phoned in to “Al-Qahera Al-Youm and announced that the government will donate LE 1 for every LE 1 the campaign raises.
Prominent figures have also called in to donate; Sheikh Saleh Kamel donated 100 houses while Prince Talal Bin Abdel Aziz donated LE 1 million, which is equivalent to 33 houses.
Flash floods and heavy rains last month left 10 dead in Sinai and southern Egypt. Hundreds of homes were destroyed, mainly in the city of Aswan in southern Egypt and the northern Sinai town of Al-Arish.
Ever since, Adib has been collecting donations for the Egyptian Food Bank, a charity organization that works towards eliminating hunger in Egypt.
In return, the Egyptian Food Bank donated 100 houses for the project. Its chairman, Niazi Sallam, is collecting money to build 50 more houses.
Since “these houses need home appliances, Sallam contacted all home appliance moguls in Egypt for donations. Olympic and Ideal will be donating 2,000 home appliances, Universal will donate 1,000 ovens, Kiriazi is giving 1,500 refrigerators and ovens. Other companies such as Goldi and Toshiba are also contributing to the project.
Sallam pointed out that we shouldn’t be focusing only on Aswan while disregarding North and South Sinai, and for that reason, all the extra appliances will be kept in storage until houses there are ready to be furnished.
Celebrities such as actor Mahmoud Abdel Aziz and singer Hisham Abbass also joined the campaign. Donations came in many different forms, for example a cement company donated all the cement to be used for the project while a high-quality brick factory will give them all the supplies needed at a discounted price. Some also donated for a mosque to be built in the area as well as a clinic.
“This shows that we can do a lot, with the donations collected we can go on and start housing projects in Al-Arish and other places, Adib said.
