HOUCHYGAMA'ANA ALEXANDRIA

United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees UNHCR EGYPT COMMUNITY SUPPORT PROJECTS 2015-2016

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HOUCHYGAMA’ANA

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Cairo, December 2015

HOUCH YGAMA’ANA

REPORT 2015

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HOUCH YGAMAANA Alexandria - Egypt

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HOUCH YGAMA’ANA

Acknowledgment

HOUSHYGAMAA’ANA TEAM Project Directors: Omar Wanas & Insaf Ben Othmane H. Construction Manager: Ahmed Nabil Construction Supervisor: Mohamed Karam Project Coordinators: Heba Attia & Tayseer Khairy Graphic Designer: Abd El Azim Beidas & Rowaa Azam IT Officer: Mai Mahmoud Monitoring and Evaluation Officer: Mona Farouk Consultants: Renet Korthals Altes, Heba Abou el Fadl, Ebtissam Farid and Hatem El Tawil Local NGOs: Misriyati, Dekka & Warraqat

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AUTHORS Insaf Hamrouni - Ecumene Studio Omar Wanas- Ecumene Studio THANKS TO Ministry of Education officials-El Montazah Educational District Officials School teaching and management staff in Alexandria.

Alexandria Local Community Local workers and Craftsmen PHOTO CREDITS Insaf Hamrouni Ahmed Nabil Omar Wanas Mohamed Karam Mohamed Amin Heba Attia Tayseer Khairy Houch Ygama’na Qomora Volunteers Layla Zibar

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Forword

This report is a documentation of participatory design and construct project: HOUCH YGAMA’NA. The projects took place in 2015 in the governorate of Alexandria. The project is initiated by UNHCR Community Support programs unit (CSP) and supported by Terre des home and implemented by Ecumene Studio.

HOUCH YGAMA’NA entails a participatory approach to redesign and construct child and community friendly spaces including spaces to play gather and socialize. The input and help from local community and users such as local teachers, construction workers, parents and volunteers enriched all projects.

The project was effectively carried out twice in each of the cities of Gamasa and New Damietta in September 2014 and January 2015 respectively and This report is a narrative to the third edition of the project implemented in five governmental primary schools in the governorate of Alexandria. The project is in partnership with the University of Alexandria, the Ministry of Education and Misriyati local NGO.

Omar Wanas Insaf Ben Othmane.H Œcumene Studio

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Content ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

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FOREWORD

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HOUSHYGAMA’ANA PROJECT - ALEXANDRIA

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Introduction

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Site Selection - Project Milestones Identification

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The project Participatory workshops

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Physical Implementation - Construction and Exhibition

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Geographic Location of Alexandria

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In the education sector, within the limited resources most expenditure is directed towards the enclosed teaching space rather than the outdoor one. Perceiving the outdoor space as additional rather than a complementary one leads to the emergence of an non-functional and unchallenging space which by turn is under-utilised. This scarce open space-in such a dense urban fabric-offers massive potential for: outdoor education, recreation, play, social bonding and consequently character formation.

- Omar Wanas, Ecumene Studio

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HOUSHYGAMA’ANA PROJECT - ALEXANDRIA

Introduction

The project was first applied in June 2014 in a governmental school in Gamasa, Egypt. This was followed by creating a child and community outdoor space in the Central Park of New Damietta, Egypt.

HouchYgama’ana aims to create a safer and more friendly education environment through an integrative and participatory design and construct approach of the selected schoolyards in refugee-hosting schools.

- Omar Wanas, Ecumene Studio

The project aims at creating a set of socially engaging processes that bring school students, staff and community members together to define and engage in the processes of reshaping and developing their schools. In addition, it aims at utilising Energy of young professionals-to-

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be students who are the volunteers from Egyptian public and private universities who take part and engage in the meaningful changes in their communities and more importantly they collectively interact with the children and in away bridge between them and the adults in the school. In the public education sector, within the limited resources most expenditure is directed towards the enclosed teaching space rather than the outdoor one. Perceiving the outdoor space as additional rather than a complementary one leads to the emergence of an nonfunctional and unchallenging spaces, which by turn, is under-utilised. This scarce open space-in such a dense urban fabric-offers massive potential for: outdoor education, recreation, play, social bonding and consequently character formation of the students.

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UNHCR has identified together with the MOE a group of highly pressured refugee-hosting schools and thus the additional aim is to elevate the pressure set on host schools due to the influx of Syrian students, five governmental schools in Al Montazah district in Alexandria have been chosen for the upcoming project. The Educational district and subsequently the primary schools were chosen through integrative participatory meetings and site visits held by the CSP unit of the UNHCR with the Ministry of Education and the Education Department representatives in Alexandria. The selection was aimed to maximise impact on the existing local population and so schools with a high count of students and schools with registered Syrian students were within the selection criteria. The selected schools were the following:

•Aziz Abazza Primary School community.

•Al Shaheed Mohamed El Ashmawy Primary School community.

•Mustafa Mosharafa Primary School community.

•Al Andalus Al Higaz Primary

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School community.

•Al AkidAly El Masry Primary School community.

Main Objective The project main objective is to reduce some of the pressure on refugee-hosting schools in Alexandria through the creation of a safer and child-friendly educational environment which is created through an integrative and participatory design and construct processes.

Activities

•Integrated design workshops and activities related to physically upgrading the schoolyard and complementary items/indoors upgrading: The Design Charrette and The Design and Build workshops.

•Capacity development for School community (students, teachers, staff, and parents) through participatory training workshop and team building sessions to activate the PTA and

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•promote joint management of the school.

•Building and decorating works.

•Light maintenance interventions.

variety of learning experiences.

•Formation of bonds and friendship ties between Syrian and Egyptian students.

•The Decrease in disputes in Methodology and Approach: the playground between Syrian& Syrian, Egyptian and Syrian and The project is based on a participatory Egyptian and Egyptian students. and inclusive approach from day one and throughout the process. The •An Increase in students’ project should be locally owned. We participation in recess and make sure that the key stakeholders, participation in individual and direct and target beneficiaries take group playing. Enhanced selfpart from the beginning in the esteem and sense of belonging to development of the project and space which is the school in this take part in the implementation case. phase by using innovative ways •The psychological benefits of of collaboration some of which self-help. are: Co-design workshops with school students and moderated •The facilitation of supportive

by University students, Capacity local network ties. building workshops for teaching zv§§ staff and participatory construction.

•Reinforcement of community Outcomes responsibilities and resourcefulness. help children return to normalcy.

•Fostering child development Since, the child’s development is and stimulation of creativity. tightly connected to the natural, built and socioeconomic environments.

•Exposing the students to a Thus, the combination of both

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physical interventions and activities is essential to create a friendly, healthy and safe space for children.

Consequently, the aim of the project is to create a more functional, child friendly, educational and playful installation that fosters children of different age-groups and enhances their playing, learning and social experience, with the following objectives: Give the children the time and space to just be children, Provide safe spaces where children and youth can play, socialize, learn and express themselves in a supportive environment, Exposing the children to a variety of learning experience, Fostering children’s natural resilience and coping mechanisms, Foster child development, Stimulate creativity, Enable the re-appropriation of space by the child, Bring colours and arts closer to children’s heart.

The space set for this project initially was an outdoor space in the Cultural Palace of New Damietta. The Palace

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covers 9,477 square meter, with the theatre occupying the largest built up area in the building plot.

The open space represents 59% of the plot with an area of 830 square meter. In the South West corner of the Palace lay a patch of grass of a total area of 120 square meter with an iron roundabout, two seesaws, a balance and a swing which due to the lack of maintenance and the local climatic conditions were corroded and the plastic seats were partially broken. In addition, most of the games were individual oriented, depended on direct symbolism and were only appropriate for a certain age category. Hence, the main aim was to expand the playground zone and add to the current play elements others that were age appropriate and held multiple uses for both the children and the TDH team.

Due to the short time span of the project and the complication of the authorization process, the site was changed briefly before construction to the Central Park in New Damietta.

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Main Justification for the project is the increase in pressure on public schools hosting refugees which by turn affects the quality of the learning environment.

- Main Issue

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HOUCH YGAMA’ANA

HOUSHYGAMA’ANA PROJECT - ALEXANDRIA

Sites Selection Project Milestones Identification

influx of the Syrian population. In the light of this existing pressure and the limited available resources the educational system is in dire need of all the support available (CSP, 2015).

Context

Sites Selection

Alexandria is the second largest city in Egypt. Situated directly on the Mediterranean coast, it extends for 32 km along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea in the north central part of the country (Collins, 2014). In the education sector, it has 438,880 enrolled primary students (in comparison to 669,915 in Cairo) (GAEB, 2013) in a total of 573 primary schools (755 in Cairo). It is also a main concentration city for Syrian refugees - who in addition to the multiplication of the Egyptian population in Alex. – Exert great pressure on the existing school count.

El Montazah Educational Department in Alexandria is one of the largest departments with enrolled refugees and specifically Syrians. A large percentage of El Montazah Schools were already applying morning and afternoon shifts even before the

The Educational district and subsequently the primary schools were chosen through integrative participatory meetings and site visits held by the CSP unit of the UNHCR with the Ministry of Education and the Education Department representatives in Alexandria. The selection was aimed to maximize impact on the existing local population and so schools with a high count of students and schools with registered Syrian students were within the selection criteria.

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The selected schools are namely: i-Aziz Abazza Primary School ii-Al Shaheed Mohamed El Ashmawy Primary School iii-Mustafa Mosharafa Primary School iv-Al Andalus Al Higaz Primary School v-Al Akid Aly El Masry Primary School

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Aziz Abazza Schoolyard before Intervention

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Ashmawy Schoolyard before intervention

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Andalus & Hegaz Schoolyard before Intervention

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Ali el Masri Schoolyard before Intervention

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The project participatory workshops

The workshops took place in the design Hall of the Faculty of Fine Arts, Alexandria University. The choice of place made it accessible for professors of Art and Architecture to observe the progress and provide input on the ongoing work.

The Volunteers (Play workers) – a total of 33 plus/minus 5 who joined the team during the 10 days workshop - came from various zbackgrounds: Architecture, Arts, Political Science, Science and Education, disciplines and governorates: Cairo, Alexandria, El Beheira. The play workers worked in groups of six to seven pers. which were enriched by this diversity. The workshop was divided into several phases:

First phase: Introductory phase:

This included the introductory session to the play workers, team building activities and input lectures on playground design, educational

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buildings in Egypt, and Co-design with children. This was followed by a site visit to the five schools for a site analysis, documentation and introducing them to the school staff.

Finally , the playworkers were given time to develop the programme of the co-design with primary students workshop and purchase needs and materials needed for the 3-day workshop.

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Feedback sessions

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‫‪Team work‬‬

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Second phase: Co-design with primary students’ workshop: First Day of the Co-design workshop in included: Registration of the students, “Ice breaking” activities, explaining Houch Yegama’na project, and free play in the yard to observe the behaviour of the students within the space.

Origami name tags designed for the children

4 days design workshop with children designed by the volunteers in the 5 schools

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The Second day entailed identifying issues with the yard and the redesign of the yard with the students.

After reflecting on both the previous days, on the third day the play workers presented their ideas for redesign to the students through various drawing, photos and mockups. The day was then concluded with the distribution of certificates to the participating students.

Playing activities including role play exercices

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Third phase: Design Charette: The final phase of the workshop was the design charette in which the play workers reflected on the previous phases and prepared their final designs and drawings of the redesigned schoolyards. The work was then presented to a jury of the technical team, Professors of Alexandria University and UNHCR representatives from both Cairo and Alexandria for feedback.

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Presentation of the different design outputs with the presence project partners

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Fourth Phase: Teaching Staff Workshop The workshop titled ( How the schoolyard can be a welcoming space for everyone) was held for two days starting he 29th of August and Ending the 30th of August.

The workshop included teachers and administration from the five schools whom shared the issues facing their schoolyards and how to overcome them. The workshop was moderated

by Misriyati whom ideas and concepts on: how to foster differences between students, how to manage spaces with a large number of students and assessment & evaluation techniques of the schoolyard dynamics.

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The Teaching Staff Workshop included team building and conflict resolution sessions

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2 days school community workshop insured by Misryati

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HOUCH YGAMA’ANA

._Construction and Exhibition

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Physical implementation construction and Exhibition

The implementation phase was divided into two stages: Maintenance stage: Based on the need assessment conducted by the technical team prior to the launch of the workshop, certain maintenance and childproof issues were identified in the five selected schools. Maintenance works varied from: classroom painting, adding iron doors, maintaining existing fences, plumbing fixation and mending broken window. These works were initiated parallel to the student’s workshop in order to gain the confidence of school staff and at the same time give the students time to come up with their designs of the schoolyards. The most school in need of maintenance was Al Andalus & EL Hejaz School in which 41 classrooms were painted and their doors were repaired and painted, while the least in need of maintenance was Aly El Masry which was totally renovated

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by GAEB before the initiation of this project directly.

Schoolyard construction: The schoolyard construction phase was initiated post to the refinement of the workshop deigns and were carried out in the five schools at the same time in order to have all the works finished before the start of the new school semester. Changes were made on-site based on frequent visits from the Montazah educational departments and direct feedback from the school’s managerial and teaching staff.

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Physical conditions indoor classrooms

Cleaning and painting indoor walls

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Andalus & Hegaz

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Azize Abaza

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Andalus & Hegaz

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Azize Abaza

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Ali El Masry

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Hegaz & Andalus

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Ali El Masry

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Azize Abaza

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Ashmawy

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Moustfa Moucharafa

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The Opening Event - Exhibition: Opening tour of The schools with UNHCR vice regional representative , representatives from UNHCR Cairo office , representatives from UNHCR Alexandria, Representatives from the local educational district of Montazah and representatives from the ministry of Education . The aforementioned visited Azi Abazza and Ali El Masry Primary school. They then proceeded to the Faculty of Fine Arts Main Hall to open the exhibition and deliver the certificates of merit for the attendees and participants in the project.

The exhibition took place at Alexandria University Fine Arts

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The visit of Schoolyards have been followed by an opening and cultural events.

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Visit HOUSHYGAMA’ANA WEBSITE: http://houshygamaana.org

© 2014