New Recording 38.

m4a
Zeina: [00:00:01] Hello. How are you?

Mariam: [00:00:04] I'm good. How are you?

Zeina: [00:00:06] All good. Thank you for taking the time to get interviewed and answer
my questions. And Ramadan Kareem!

Mariam: [00:00:12] Ramadan Kareem for you, too.

Zeina: [00:00:15] So first off, I'd like you to please briefly introduce yourself. How old
are you? What's your name?

Mariam: [00:00:22] My name is Mariam Abdelgawad, and I'm 21 years old. And I study
at AUC and I'm studying finance and accounting. Um, I also and I also work at a club in
AUC called Mashrou3 Kheir. Um, I've been, I've been joining this club for two years until
now. And last year I was a head. And this year I'm, I'm the president of Mashrou3 Kheir.

Zeina: [00:00:52] Wonderful. So I've come to you as someone who's an expert in the
field of food packing. More specifically during Ramadan. So before asking further
questions, can you please, like, guide me through the process from the idea until the
boxes get delivered?

Mariam: [00:01:10] Yes, of course. So it's kind of a long process. First of all, we start
by, um, deciding on the components of the pack of the Ramadan pack, and that's done
by research. We go to different suppliers in different areas, and we, we search for the
best prices in the market in order for us to do like a full pack with the the basic
necessities that a family needs. Plus, we try to make the price. Um, we try to make the
price not so high so people can donate and so we can do the best. Enough, enough
packs for the for the families that need it. And then after that, we decide on the
components and the price and everything. We decide on the number of families, um,
uh, the number of packs we want to do to set a goal. Um, and then we help Misr El
Kheir , which is the, which is the NGO that we've, we've collaborated with this year, uh,
so they can collect donations, uh, based on the goal that we set. After we collect
donations, I think we, we've done that for, Misr El Kheir had one month to collect the
donations and all we did was like, raise uh, we, we told people about the campaign and
then, um, the parking day itself, it was one weekend before Ramadan. And this is, this is
when we, we actually assemble all the packs and the next day we distributed them in
the different locations that we've decided before.

Zeina: [00:02:45] Okay. Thank you. That was a very good explanation. Um, now, as
you must know, already the Egyptian pound has inflated to almost double its price
compared to last year. So how has this affected your packing process?

Mariam: [00:03:03] Okay, first of all, this has had a very, very big effect on the
Ramadan packing this year. Last year, the Ramadan pack that we did was for 120, 120
pounds This year, the pack, the the pack was for 250. Uh, so it was more than double
the price. And the second thing last year there were we had we had protein in the
packs. We included one chicken in each pack that we distributed. But this year it was in
no way we could have included protein for hatta with the double the double increase in
the 100% increase in the price also excluded aslan the protein that we that we put last
year fa the pack did not have any protein as in chicken or meat aw keda.

Zeina: [00:03:54] That's very saddening to hear that. I was going to ask you how how
your organization dealt with the problem. Are there any other ways or like solutions that
you came up with other than the protein one?

Mariam: [00:04:09] Yes. So I'm going to tell you what we did. First of all, because we
knew that there was the economic crisis that that we're currently facing as a country.
We knew that we had we had to give it much more time than we did last year. So we
started, uh, aslan the preparations before Ramadan with more than four months. We
started to research everywhere for with all the supplies that we know and that we don't
know. Um, and what we found was that there wasn't even any available components,
yaany the problem was not only in the increase of prices, it was that the, the
unavailability of the of the products in the market anyway. Yaany masalan, for example,
the rice which is, which is like an essential component of the pack wasn't even available
at any of the suppliers that we knew for for what. It was that we had to do a
collaboration with Misr El Kheir because they already have their components men a
long while ago from Wezaret El Tadamon. Um, so they didn't have any shortage of the
components, but they couldn't supply us with any protein. So this is how we dealt with it.
And we started from early, awy, we, we went to Misr El KHeir , which is a large NGO
because we knew that this is the only way that we'll be able to achieve our target
without el astafa el over.

Zeina: [00:05:34] Yes, I understand. And so given the fact that the pound has yet to
inflate within the next couple of months or possibly years, do you feel like your
organization is prepared now for what is yet to come?

Mariam: [00:05:49] Um, I think that as long as there are NGOs in Egypt like Misr El
Kheir, Bank El Taam and so on, that are willing to help people like us. Um, and are
willing to collaborate with Mashrou3 Kheir or any other club or any other group of young
people who are yaany as long as they're willing to do that, eyeba Inshallah there's no
problem. Because they're the ones that back us, especially that we cannot even collect
donations or contributions because of the rules of the university. So as long as Misr El
Keir has our back and are willing to continue collaborating with us, then Inshallah there
won't be any problem in the following years.

Zeina: [00:06:37] How were you? How were you picking up donations if you're not
allowed to do them on university ground?

Mariam: [00:06:48] No, we're not even allowed to do them at all. Not on university
grounds or even outside. Yes. So what we did was that Misr El Keir were the were the
ones that were collecting the donations through different ushers and links that they have
already different methods for donations. What we did was just we we rose awareness
about the campaign itself and we directed people on how to donate to Misr El Keir. But
we didn't. We we don't collect donations ourselves.

Zeina: [00:07:18] Okay. That's a that's a nice a nice gesture out of Misr El Kheir.

Mariam: [00:07:24] Yes. This is the the only possible way. Hamdullah.

Zeina: [00:07:27] And and so the last, last question is what's a call for action to anyone
who's listening to this interview and how can they help and how can they help you be
better equipped for for the future?
Mariam: [00:07:44] Okay. Um, one thing I would say, and I've always said it to my team,
especially this year, that because of the economic crisis or the financial crisis that
almost every house in Egypt is currently facing, We have to think that the, in our society,
the underprivileged or the poor people that were already facing difficulties before this
economic crisis, we can only imagine how hard it's it's have been on them. So we have
to we have to all be more sympathetic towards these people and we have to be more
inclusive, um, and help them as much as possible with everything that we have and not
only think about the difficulties we're personally facing. When you think about other
people in our society, especially the ones who are facing more difficulties now.

Zeina: [00:08:37] Yes, I totally agree with you. Is there anything else you'd like to add?

Mariam: [00:08:44] Uh, no.

Zeina: [00:08:46] All right. Thank you so, so much for answering my questions. Thank
you. And I'll send you the the final product as soon as we're done.

Mariam: [00:08:54] Okay. I'll be waiting for it.

Zeina: [00:08:56] Thank you.