Report on Volunteering with A&A

Volunteering With Alwan & Awtar

In August 2009, a friend of mine introduced me to an NGO in El-Mokattam called "Alwan & Awtar". I was fascinated by the work they do with the marginalized children of Masaken Elzelzal and how much impact they had on the surrounding area. Alwan & Awtar (A&A) Was established in 2005 with the aim of promoting visual and performing arts and using arts as a vehicle for social development. Its vision is to enable a body of inspired youth to think creatively and see beauty in their surroundings which in turn will enrich their lives and its mission is to create a unique haven where impoverished youth can nurture their artistic senses and experience self discovery through visual and performing arts in a professional, yet flexible and enjoyable environment.

A&A targets the marginalized youths (Age 7-20) of Masaken El-Zelzal area and works on strengthening their basic learning skills, enhancing their creativity and broadening their cultural sphere. It achieves this through a team of dedicated art professionals and volunteers who interact with and encourage youths to experiment with arts in a variety of fields including handcrafts, music, photography, painting, writing, languages and other. Some of the projects implemented by A&A included "Theatre of the oppressed" in cooperation with Save the children (USA), where the youths are trained through a number of workshops on drama, music, drawing, creative writing, story telling, photography and graphic design, that enable them to produce their own play, hence giving them the chance to express their feelings, experiences and what they go through in their daily lives. Another project that was implemented is "Encouraging youths participation in the community" in cooperation with The Coptic Evangelic Organization for Social Services (CEOSS). The project aimed at embedding a sense of responsibility in tolerance in youths towards their community and becoming proactive members in their surrounding community.

On my first day with A&A, I had a meeting with Azza Kamel, the director and she gave me a brief about the organizations background and activities. I talked with her about my previous experience in SCREAM project (Supporting Child Rights through Education, Arts and Media) and how we used arts, specifically creative writing and drama, to educate children about their rights. I suggested starting Creative Writing sessions with the children aged 10-12 using the tools of Active learning and she liked the idea.

I started my first session with the kids by getting to know them, their hobbies, their personalities and their attitude towards reading and writing and I have to say that it was a tough job. I had 8 kids in the class between the age of 10-12, most of which were hyperactive and couldn't for a whole ten minutes. I had to grab their attention all the time by playing games and dividing them into groups and motivating competition among them. From my interviews with the kids I found that out of the 8 kids, only two loved reading and writing. The others were mainly interested in watching cartoons and movies. Their linguistic skills were also poor which meant that I had to focus on strengthening their reading and writing skills through games and visual aids. At the end of the first lesson I talked with the person responsible for the M&E to get some feedback on the session and we concluded that I need to focus on three things on my coming class: keeping them busy and active throughout the session using interactive methods of teaching, teaching them the basics of reading and writing throughout the session, and introducing them to important ethics and values (for example: teamwork, discipline, honesty) through the games and activities.

I also had the opportunity during my volunteering period with A&A to attend a three day training workshop on “Non-formal Education” with Aleya Mokhtar, an educational consultant. The workshop involved how to design a training curriculum. It aimed at familiarizing participants with the basic elements of an integrated curriculum that focuses on lifelong skills that are revisited throughout students' lives. The training was very informative and gave me an insight on how to set the objectives of your curriculum according to your target group and setting the curriculum that meets this objective.

In an interview conducted with Natasha Mahendran, a project manager at A&A, I asked her about how the organization applies the concepts of participation, gender empowerment and the use of social capital in their work. She mentioned that A&A activities are implemented by experienced and creative animators or instructors and complemented with the time of diverse professional and student volunteers from both Egypt and overseas. Foreign volunteers in particular expose the children and youth to other cultures and different ways of doing things. A&A staffs from the community assist animators during their classes and learn new skills in the process. This enables them to teach the children themselves and learn a lucrative skill and empower themselves as women in a traditionally restrictive community.
Moreover, older youths who have learned new skills through A&A courses are also encouraged to volunteer with the children and teach them what they have learned. Animators and volunteers coordinate their activities and any needs they have for materials with the Program Coordinator/Manager of each arm of A&A- Non-formal Education, Library, Arts & Crafts. Animators also discuss student progress with the project staff and come up with strategies to make improvements and encourage good behaviour and excellence amongst the beneficiaries. A&A continues to be guided by its beneficiaries and the local community, focusing on the priorities they feel are most important.

A&A believes in the active participation of the children and youth of the community in the decision making process to choose what activities will be run. Following focus group discussions, new activities are made available. This is the case for the non-formal education courses. They have been developed as a response to the thirst for knowledge expressed by the children and youth.
According to Natasha, “A&A runs on a system of mutual respect. Animators, volunteers and staff respect the children and youth of the community as individuals with feelings, desires and dreams. By listening to their opinions we avoid taking a top-down approach but rather encourage and promote a participatory approach in all our courses and activities”.
I also asked her during the interview about whether the donors impose a certain agenda, goals and policies on the organization for them to gain funding. She replied that donor policies can cause some level of imposition. However as long as they are in line with A&A goals, needs and strategy, this is fine. She gave an example of their compliance with one donor requiring them to hire a full-time accountant.

In conclusion, my experience at A&A was insightful and it taught me a lot about civil society in Egypt and The activities performed by NGOs. I also concluded from my experience with A&A that it actually takes time for an NGO to be highly professional as the limited capital it has and it's basic dependence of funding restrict it's ability to recruit professional staffs and the use of technological methods. However, if the NGO is built on good will and on a few of professional insightful board, they will make sure to update and improve the NGO and it's impact on the surrounding community with all the efforts and resources they have, and this is what I perceived in A&A.