Mokattam Blog Tales

My name is Nesma Gewily and I’m the person responsible for the project "Mokattam Blog Tales" taking place at Alwan wa Awtar organization

and it is an organization located inside the elzelezal building in Mokattam

I have been working as a trainer for youth development for young people aged 18 to 30 years old

I’m teaching them how to make development projects and social initiatives in society

I was invited last February to give a training at Alwan wa Awtar for youth development

for self and society awareness, and I have worked with them for the past three years

and I find that working with the youth to be very special through their artistic works

either through video, photography, reporting, or any other kind of artistic work

that is why I liked to return again and work with them and teach them additional tools of expression

I selected the participants after working with them at a workshop last February

and they are a very talented group in art, and then I heard about Global Voices and I felt that I must return to Mokattam

and we started to use the support provided by GV in order to teach the youth how to use new expression tools of video and photography

to show them how to write and express themselves online where it would be available to the whole world to hear and see

and this is the most important thing to link these youth to others in other societies in Egypt and globally

The most important challenge for me was securing the participants' commitment and maybe this was because their life is not well organized

but step by step, I tried to face the challenge by providing outdoor activities

when they to out, they saw new places and met new people and this is a experience in itself for them!

in addition, they know that there’s a product like a magazine where they can express themselves through images from their own reality

and this more powerful to be more involved in the project

This group of youth is very special... During the last five years, I have worked with youth training almost everywhere in Egypt

and every group came to learn through different activities

But this group is very special because they trained with a lot of trainers, both Egyptians and foreigners

where they worked on art activities, and for them any other type of training is boring

My name is Islam Magdy Mahmoud, I am 18 years-old and am in high school

we learned how to tell a story and we started by speaking with each other,

then we learned how to use cameras and how to make black and white photos

"Mokattam Blog Tales" is a special project for me, it’s about empowering youth from Mokattam how to use new tools to express themselves

to link them to their society and the global society

continuing the project is important so that the youth can learn how to use the new media tools and they can to use it in their life in any way that they wish.