Politics 101
Wow what a year!
Since March Fatima Mamish, Ingy Mashhour (two parents of children with Autism) and myself have been working on our dream project; establishing multiple comprehensive centers all around Egypt for special needs. On the 23rd of May we finally received a phone calling telling us that President Abdel Fattah El Sisi will meet with us and listen to our project. I was on the beach in Sokhna (outside Cairo when I heard) . I went numb and started to panic quietly. I was surrounded by atleast 15 of my friends and their kids but i saw no one. All i wanted to do was pack my stuff and hurry back to Cairo to revise the project. i also had to call the parents of some of my ASD students as i was informed I needed to take the children with me. By the time I made it to the car the security check had begun, every two minutes we would receive a call asking for pictures of my ID, my drivers ID my license plate and the IDs of every single staff attending with me. I couldn't tell them that I was still in my bathing suit and had nothing of what they requested so I seriously hurried home.
The meeting was 10 am the following morning so Ibasically only had time to organize which children I would take and which teachers would accompany them . We finally arrived to the itehadeya castle where severe security checks were done at the entrance. Everything was taken from us including phones and USBs. We had snacks and little games to keep the children busy which thankfully we were able to keep.
The castle was shiny and spotless, we were taken to a Salon and asked to wait there. A few minutes later this elegant Salon was covered in popcorn and play dough and the children were running up and down the big room. Every ten minutes somebody either dressed in a black suit and headphones or in military uniform would come and check on us. It was nice to see how these big scary uniformed men turned into jello as soon as they saw the kids playing. All they kept saying to us was do they need anything, please let them be comfortable. the attitude was surprising and quite frankly lovely.
The head of protocol kept calling me outside the room to discuss what would happen when the President arrived. I asked what the children were needed for and was informed it was for a photo shoot. I asked if after the photoshoot we could have 30 minutes to put them back in the cars and send them back home with their teachers he agreed.
I was ordered to take a step forward , shake the hand of the President then introduce him to every person present then go stand back in my place and pose for the media.
Until that moment i didn't understand what exactly would happen; will we actually get the chance to explain our project or was it just a photo shoot and how much time would we have with him.
The meeting was truly wonderful better than anything I ever expected. he spent three hours with us listening carefully, asking questions and telling us what his research team had already found out. He was very well prepared and made us feel that this was genuinely a priority. He told us the budget he had already allocated for this project and discussed with us land options for the six centers.
After the meeting we sat with the presidents spokes person who informed us what to say to the press. We then had a small press conference and went home. Within two hours every single network and program were calling us for information about the meeting.
So many things happened in these last three and a half months. I asked my mothers cousin Dr Ibrahim Karim (architect and founder of Biogeometry) to work on the design and if we could do it using biogeometry. He was the perfect person to choose as his passion and dedication is incomparable. He brought on Eng Raef Fahmy who turned out to be another god sent. Raef has an autistic son so was also doing this for the right reasons. The team worked day and night. The design is now nearly finished and a sample classroom has been built and is ready for testing. Ingy and I started taking classes in strategy (chinese would have been easier) so that we could come up with a complete strategic plan. Our file was handed to a group of wonderful people from the council of societal development they helped us and taught us every step of the way. People started fighting over our file and the project froze for a while until it was settled who should supervise us. The fights were very low in nature and accusations were brutal.
In those three months I learned a lot . Once you reach this level of working with ministries, the army and councils people change. Intentions are not so clear (or honorable) and everybody has a hidden personal agenda. People will do anything to be noticed, take credit for things they haven't done and actively try and destroy projects if they are not involved in them. As much as people like Eng Raef and Dr Ibrahim give me hope in this world that some people are truly decent and selfless as much asI have become very disappointed in the human race over all. I have come to realize that this journey is turning into politics not special needs and that you have to keep up to survive and doubt everyone. My dream was a lot simpler and seemed a lot purer in theory. Luckily we have a good team made of solid people with the right intentions. Everyone in the team has donated their time and skills free of charge and gladly. The passion and excitement about the project is the glue that keeps us together. we are aware of all the attempts that are made to hinder us but we continue to focus on our work and believe in our dream.
Since March Fatima Mamish, Ingy Mashhour (two parents of children with Autism) and myself have been working on our dream project; establishing multiple comprehensive centers all around Egypt for special needs. On the 23rd of May we finally received a phone calling telling us that President Abdel Fattah El Sisi will meet with us and listen to our project. I was on the beach in Sokhna (outside Cairo when I heard) . I went numb and started to panic quietly. I was surrounded by atleast 15 of my friends and their kids but i saw no one. All i wanted to do was pack my stuff and hurry back to Cairo to revise the project. i also had to call the parents of some of my ASD students as i was informed I needed to take the children with me. By the time I made it to the car the security check had begun, every two minutes we would receive a call asking for pictures of my ID, my drivers ID my license plate and the IDs of every single staff attending with me. I couldn't tell them that I was still in my bathing suit and had nothing of what they requested so I seriously hurried home.
The meeting was 10 am the following morning so Ibasically only had time to organize which children I would take and which teachers would accompany them . We finally arrived to the itehadeya castle where severe security checks were done at the entrance. Everything was taken from us including phones and USBs. We had snacks and little games to keep the children busy which thankfully we were able to keep.
The castle was shiny and spotless, we were taken to a Salon and asked to wait there. A few minutes later this elegant Salon was covered in popcorn and play dough and the children were running up and down the big room. Every ten minutes somebody either dressed in a black suit and headphones or in military uniform would come and check on us. It was nice to see how these big scary uniformed men turned into jello as soon as they saw the kids playing. All they kept saying to us was do they need anything, please let them be comfortable. the attitude was surprising and quite frankly lovely.
The head of protocol kept calling me outside the room to discuss what would happen when the President arrived. I asked what the children were needed for and was informed it was for a photo shoot. I asked if after the photoshoot we could have 30 minutes to put them back in the cars and send them back home with their teachers he agreed.
I was ordered to take a step forward , shake the hand of the President then introduce him to every person present then go stand back in my place and pose for the media.
Until that moment i didn't understand what exactly would happen; will we actually get the chance to explain our project or was it just a photo shoot and how much time would we have with him.
The meeting was truly wonderful better than anything I ever expected. he spent three hours with us listening carefully, asking questions and telling us what his research team had already found out. He was very well prepared and made us feel that this was genuinely a priority. He told us the budget he had already allocated for this project and discussed with us land options for the six centers.
After the meeting we sat with the presidents spokes person who informed us what to say to the press. We then had a small press conference and went home. Within two hours every single network and program were calling us for information about the meeting.
So many things happened in these last three and a half months. I asked my mothers cousin Dr Ibrahim Karim (architect and founder of Biogeometry) to work on the design and if we could do it using biogeometry. He was the perfect person to choose as his passion and dedication is incomparable. He brought on Eng Raef Fahmy who turned out to be another god sent. Raef has an autistic son so was also doing this for the right reasons. The team worked day and night. The design is now nearly finished and a sample classroom has been built and is ready for testing. Ingy and I started taking classes in strategy (chinese would have been easier) so that we could come up with a complete strategic plan. Our file was handed to a group of wonderful people from the council of societal development they helped us and taught us every step of the way. People started fighting over our file and the project froze for a while until it was settled who should supervise us. The fights were very low in nature and accusations were brutal.
In those three months I learned a lot . Once you reach this level of working with ministries, the army and councils people change. Intentions are not so clear (or honorable) and everybody has a hidden personal agenda. People will do anything to be noticed, take credit for things they haven't done and actively try and destroy projects if they are not involved in them. As much as people like Eng Raef and Dr Ibrahim give me hope in this world that some people are truly decent and selfless as much asI have become very disappointed in the human race over all. I have come to realize that this journey is turning into politics not special needs and that you have to keep up to survive and doubt everyone. My dream was a lot simpler and seemed a lot purer in theory. Luckily we have a good team made of solid people with the right intentions. Everyone in the team has donated their time and skills free of charge and gladly. The passion and excitement about the project is the glue that keeps us together. we are aware of all the attempts that are made to hinder us but we continue to focus on our work and believe in our dream.
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