The Greenish Festival: A First for the Community
It’s over 35 degrees Celsius at the Greek campus of the American University in Cairo downtown. The sun is high above the 3,000 attendees and partners presenting their initiatives or businesses. It shouldn’t be this hot in September, Greenish co-director Mohamed Kamal will later tell us as he introduces the day’s line-up, “which is why we need to be here,” he remarks. To raise community awareness about the importance of the environment was the inspiration behind the Greenish festival, in collaboration with San3aTech. For Shady Khalil, co-founder of Greenish, it was essential to introduce people, especially the youth, to the key players of the environment sector in Egypt.
Greenish, a LEEP community member, is a young social enterprise. It was established in 2017 by friends Shady Khalil and the late Medhat Benzoher and founded on the belief that deepening individuals’ knowledge would raise questions and debates that would eventually provoke social change. Their projects include educational activities, such as the Greenish clubs established in over twenty-five schools and universities across Egypt, and environmental assessments for the workplace. Their next step in scaling this platform was organising an environmental festival - the first of its kind in Egypt. To gather thousands of people at such an event is no small feat. Engaging partners and sponsors, clearing customs, and fundraising were only some of the challenges the team faced, Khalil tells me.
Kendaka’s upcycled products at the Greenish festival. Photograph: Aida Youssef
Several entities, from social enterprises to non-profits, participated in the event. Among the twenty-four small enterprises were Kendaka who specialise in upcycling, ElBadeel who offer alternatives to everyday items harmful to the environment (both LEEP community members), and Very Nile who organise sustainable clean-ups of the Nile river. Partners included the Sustainable Fashion Alliance, which raises awareness on the harms of fast fashion, Transport for Cairo, working towards a sustainable transportation system in Cairo, Dayma Journey, an NGO dedicated to providing unique experiences in nature, and Giza Systems Foundation, another LEEP community member who uses technology to improve the lives of marginalised communities. We at RISE Egypt teamed up with UNDP Accelerator Labs to engage the community in mapping on-the-ground environmental solutions for the Digital Social Innovation Map of Egypt that will be made available through the LEEP for Collaborative Impact initiative.
Greenish festival participant registering their organization on LEEP for Collaborative Impact’s Digital Social Innovation (DSI) Map. Photograph: Aida Youssef
The panels gave audiences the chance to learn and debate questions. Of the five taking place, from subjects ranging from green economy, eco-tourism to climate change, one theme ran throughout the day: the power of the community to propel change. That’s because it shows public interest, attracting media attention, and eventually inspiring policy change, explains Khalil. “No one listens to a cause without an audience,” he adds. And the audience was receptive to these issues as they hung on every speakers’ word and engaged in discussion with them. At the end of the evening, one of the most striking parts of the event took place: the “Medhat Benzoher Award.” This award will grant students of the Greenish Clubs an ability to materialise solutions they developed to problems that tackle environmental issues, such as waste or the loss of biodiversity. Benzoher passed away after co-founding Greenish and the award honours his legacy and the love and dedication he had toward environmental sustainability in his life.
The festival was, on all accounts, a roaring success. After wondering if such an event would garner enough interest, the Greenish team was happily surprised to find that panels and workshops were overbooked, the small enterprises selling their products reported good sales, and there was constant circulation around the NGOs’ stalls throughout the day. Back at our booth, dozens of startups mapped their environmental solutions on LEEP’s digital social innovation map, highlighting the importance of mapping in providing visibility for social innovators across the country. I ask Khalil what stood out most to him. “The exposure to diversity in the community,” he answers. “That people of different backgrounds, cultures, socio-economic status, even motives were brought together by a common, inclusive cause.”
What will this community do next? That’s up to all of us.
By Aida Youssef, RISE Communications Associate