Thursday 27 July 2017

HELM and Disabled Access in Luxor


I have just had a meeting with Helm(dream in Arabic) http://www.helmegypt.org/ This wonderful
organisation started as a little club in AUC and is now an award winning  (two scholarships one from MIT and one from Havard) organisation making things happen all over Egypt. They have done loads
of accessibility projects in education and corporates in Cairo and are now looking at Luxor. It must be serendipity that they got my email just before they came.  And we found we had spoken to
the same person at the minisitry plus in their meeting with the governor he had
been briefed and we think it was from one of my early papers.

They also want to make the temples accessible, change the perception of Luxor and make some public roads more disabled friendly. They are going to be coming to Luxor a lot of the next few months and we are going to work together.

We talked together for hours, I explained my interest, they
explained theirs and we talked about what they had done and what they are
hoping to do in Luxor. They understood my interest in the project is both a
general and a business one. They thought this was a perfect example, as what
they are trying to do explain to businesses the benefits of catering to
disabled people. They also loved my guide book with its addition of access tips
for disabled plus site onformation. They thought it was unique in Egypt and would
like to see it done elsewhere. They want to promote that as well, as another example
of how catering for the disabled helps you.

And they loved the logo

A great start to the project.





About | Helm



Helm, translating to “Dream”, is a non-profit organization that aims to
promote the full inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in all aspects
of life, and specifically, to facilitate their employment and ensure
that private and public premises are accessible to all. Helm is proud to
be the first prize-winner in Negma Social Entrepreneurship Competition
in MIT, USA in 2013, and was also awarded the Rise Egypt Fellowship,
Harvard University, USA for 2014-2016.

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