Wednesday, October 09, 2019
Under the Sponsorship of Orange Egypt and Orascom Construction, Egypt’s Cairo University Team Wins Enactus World Cup 2019
- The Egyptian team from Cairo University was named the 2019 Enactus World Cup Champion after competing with 1730 universities from 32 countries
- The Egyptian team wins “Ford Better World” Award of $50,000 USD and the project to be applied in Sudan and Uganda
Under the sponsorship of Orange Egypt and Orascom Construction, Enactus Egypt (Cairo University team) has won the Enactus World Cup 2019 after competing with more than 1,730 university from 37 countries and beating the top 3 runners-up Germany, USA and Canada to the first place. The Egyptian team was also awarded the “Ford Better World” prize amounting USD 50,000.
Cairo university team developed “Rosie”, a self-sufficient social enterprise project, offering high-quality organic sanitary pads free of plastic for women. “Rosie” project has a great social dimension, where it helps women and gives them the opportunity to work through the manufacture of organic sanitary pads free of plastic and produced from banana tree fibers at a cheaper price than other expensive sanitary pads in the Egyptian market.
Many of the leading companies in Egypt provide ongoing support to Enactus Egypt Organization, including: Orange Egypt, Orascom Construction, Coca-Cola, ExxonMobil Egypt, Giza Systems, Juhayna, EG Bank, Savola, and Professional Development Foundation. These companies sponsor training workshops aiming at raising the competencies of Enactus Egypt teams in the field of entrepreneurship, leadership skills and project management. The advisory board, consisting of representatives of the supporting companies and prominent market expert, in addition to Neveen El Tahri, Chairperson and Managing Director of Delta shield, who also adopted the winning Cairo University team in the local competition to be qualified for the World Cup.
In collaboration with Orascom Construction, Orange Egypt sponsored Enactus Egypt team's journey to represent Egypt in the international competition held in California, USA.
“I am very proud of the Cairo University team and all the competing teams. Through their perseverance, dedication and hard work, they have made a positive difference in their communities. It is a real win that confirms our young people's ability to innovate in entrepreneurship and develop their communities”, Fatma Serry, President & CEO at Enactus Egypt, commented on this occasion.
For her part, Hala Abdel Wadood, Head of Public Relations & Corporate Social Responsibility at Orange Egypt said she is proud of the remarkable achievement done by the Cairo University team in this international event.
“We can attribute the success of these young people only to themselves. They possess the talent, knowledge, and specifications of successful leaders and entrepreneurs. These young talents believed in their abilities to solve society’s problems and worked hard to achieve their goals. Their first place worldwide is a culmination of all their efforts”, Abdel Wadood added.
“Enactus provides an inspiring example for everyone, where Enactus transform participants, teams, and stakeholders and raise the shared values through various social initiatives,” said Chairman & CEO of Giza Systems, and Chairman of Enactus’s Advisory Shehab El Nawawi. “Rosie project has managed to sell more than 90,000 pads so far nationwide and even expanded in Sudan and Uganda”, she pointed out.
Enactus World Cup 2019 was held in Silicon Valley, San Jose, California, USA, in the presence of more than 72,000 student members from different countries across 1,730 university campuses who are competing to create a sustainable social impact.
The impact of Rosie project is not only on personal health and hygiene, but also directly affects the number of working days for women in villages and the number of girls who are absent from school and drop out of school. Rosie is taking measurable steps to drive Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), clean water and sanitation, decent work and economic growth; and reduced inequalities.
Enactus Egypt includes a promising group of young people in 52 public and private universities as well as higher institutes. It aims to create projects serving the community and improving the standard of living of its members. Enactus organizes an annual competition with the participation of universities and institutes’ teams. Through the competition, the competing university students will introduce innovative projects that address the challenges and problems of the society. The winner of the local competition will have the opportunity to compete in the World Cup competition.
Enactus Egypt’s Advisory Board consists of prominent names and titles in the corporate world, including the Chairman & CEO of Giza Systems, Shehab El Nawawi; Public Affairs & Communications Senior Manager at Coca Cola, Ghada Makady; CEO of Orange Egypt, Yasser Shaker, Lamise Negm, V. President at Citi Bank, Heba Iskander, Corporate Development d at Orascom Construction Industries, Nihad Shelbaya, Government Relations & Public Affairs Manager at Exxon Mobile, Heba Thabet, Associtae Director- External Affairs at Juhayna Group, Moushira Khattab, Former Minister- Family & Population, Khaled Hegazy, Chief Corporate Affairs at Etisalat Egypt, Ahmed El Daly, President of Dale Carnegie Training Egypt, and Hanny El Messiry, Managing Director of Kraft Heinz and fomer Governor of Alexandria.
Continuing to support entrepreneurship and innovation to promote sustainable community growth, EG Bank sponsored the annual training for leaders this year, while Orascom Constructions and Exxon Mobile sponsored a three-day entrepreneurship workshop. Coca-Cola and EG Bank sponsored the National Competition for 2019. For its part, Giza Systems also sponsored and directed some of the Enactus Egypt teams during their academic year to prepare them for the national competition. This year, Juhayna also launched a competition on empowerment in which all Enactus Egypt teams participated.
It’s noteworthy that Enactus Egypt won World Cup twice: in 2009 and 2010. Then, Egypt ranked second in 2012 and 2018 before winning the World Cup this year.