Cairo, Egypt - Ashoka Arab World, the platform for social entrepreneurship and innovation in the Arab world, is proud to announce the election of three new social entrepreneurs into its Fellowship program: Raphaelle Ayach and Usama Ghazali from Egypt and Saed Karzoun from Palestine. With a strong belief in our Fellows’ system-changing ideas, and confidence in the positive impact they have, and will continue to have, on society, Ashoka will be providing its Fellows with a range of tailored services, supporting him in his efforts to scale up the impact of his work, and helping him develop his idea further. Raphaelle Ayach is humanizing intercultural relationships for children as a start; she is building an empathetic, intercultural sensitive generation. In doing so, Raphaelle breaks the cycle of elitism that is associated with opportunities for geographical mobility, exposure and intercultural experiences. To do this, Raphaelle is engaging underprivileged children in “touchfeel” simulated travel adventures that harness their imagination.
These simulated travel
adventures are the meaningful intercultural interactions with people from other cultures, whom Raphaelle calls the “foreign friends”. Usama Ghazali is building social capital and full economic citizenship among local communities from disparate parts of Egypt by preserving local indigenous craftsmanship skills that revive the sense of pride in the local Egyptian heritage and identity, and connect local people to the Egyptian market. To do so, first, Usama uses media to promote the diversity of local indigenous Egyptian communities and display the communities’ cultural identities and economic strengths. Second, he builds the capacities of local communities in product and brand development and equipping them with technology skills that allow connections among different cities without having to migrate. Third, he creates online portal which does not only promote for selling the communities’ products but it also acts as a digital archive for the diverse Egyptian cultures and histories. Saed Karzoun is shifting the mindset of communities in the Levant region of the Arab World from focusing on short term survival issues, to thinking for the long term for the general community prosperity. He is promoting freedom of expression and mobilizing citizens to demand their rights to access to information from decision makers. Saed is shifting the