Amideast Impact Newsletter - Summer 2021

NEWSLETTER

impact SUMMER 2021

Dear Friend, As summer begins, we are looking optimistically to the future. After months of operating under Covid-related restrictions, our offices are bustling again as they reopen for onsite activities in the 11 MENA countries in which we have permanent facilities. This is also the time for celebrating the successes of the many women and men in our exchange and scholarship programs and welcoming new participants eager to embark on the next stage in their lives. We are similarly upbeat about the reception of our new branding launched on June 1. We believe that this step will allow us to engage our audiences in new and fresh ways and support our efforts to expand opportunity—and ultimately hope—in a region fraught with challenges.

Our newsletter highlights recent initiatives, none as impactful as our 50-year partnership with the Fulbright Program. As we join in celebrating Fulbright’s 75th anniversary, we take special pride in the role it has enabled us to play in expanding opportunities for exceptional men and women from the region who, in turn, have gone on to make significant contributions locally and globally.

Against the backdrop of the many daunting challenges facing the MENA region, as always we remain committed to the importance of our mission to create opportunity, hope, and understanding. Please consider donating to Amideast to support our work to make the world a better place.

Theodore H. Kattouf President & CEO

CELEBRATING OUR FULBRIGHT PARTNERSHIP What do famed Egyptian archaeologist Zahi Hawass, award-winning filmmakers Lucien Bourjeilly and Hind Shoufani, and one of the most influential women in the Arab world, Rana Dajani, have in common? They are alumni of the Fulbright Foreign Student Program for the Middle East and North Africa, a program that Amideast has been proud to support for the past 50 years. As the Fulbright Program marks its 75th anniversary, we welcome our readers to join us in celebrating this impactful program and its many impressive alumni (read further on the back page).

impact

NEWSLETTER | SUMMER 2021

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP IN MEAL: Amideast at gLocal Evaluation Week

On June 1–2, 2021, Amideast organized three events as part of the gLocal Evaluation Week, an annual event sponsored by the gLocal Evaluation Initiative, a partnership responding to the global demand for better monitoring and evaluation to enhance development effectiveness. The events reflected three distinct areas of work in the Amideast portfolio.

The first event, "Monitoring & Evaluating Virtual Training Programs," reviewed the effectiveness of virtual learning in English language instruction, based on our experience of providing synchronous, asynchronous, and hybrid-model classes online for young and adult learners in 11 MENA countries—a timely topic given the urgent shift to e-learning models in response to the Covid pandemic. The presenters—Amideast Regional Director of English Language Programs Helena Simas and Regional Director of Monitoring, Evaluation, Accountability, and Learning (MEAL), Dr. Amal Nasralla— shared the preliminary findings of a pilot study of the methods and tools Amideast employed to monitor and evaluate its virtual programming. They also offered their recommendations for measuring the effectiveness of different types of online courses and programs.

The second event, "Building Organization MEAL Capacity," presented perspectives on why building organizational MEAL capabilities is important. The moderator, Amideast Vice President for Programs Leslie Nucho, was joined by two panelists, Amideast Country Director for Tunisia and Libya Operations, Jennifer Smith, and Dr. Nasralla, who shared lessons the organization has learned from its own experience of building an institutional MEAL mindset. The session explored ways to inculcate organizational support for MEAL practices, taking into account the practical

implications of building MEAL capacity and the challenges and opportunities that can influence the process.

In the third event, "Sustainability in Program Design," Dr. Nasralla interviewed Quincy Dermody, Chief of Party of the U.S.-Egypt Higher Education Initiative (HEI) Public University Scholarships Program, and Dina Mohsen, the program’s Operation and Disability Program Manager.

The interview explored the process of designing a sustainability plan and evaluating its effectiveness based on their experience of establishing disability service centers at five public universities in Egypt through the HEI Program, which is funded by USAID, supported by the Egyptian Ministry of Higher Education, and implemented by Amideast.

Recordings of all three events can be found on the Amideast YouTube Channel.

CONGRATULATING OUR SCHOLARS! Twenty-five outstanding young men and women in our DKSSF and Hope Fund programs graduated this year.

They deserve congratulations for their outstanding accomplishments and perseverance in the face of the Covid crisis. As we wish them continued success, we're pleased to welcome 36 new scholars who were matched with generous scholarships from colleges and universities across the United States. Our largest incoming class ever, they will begin their studies this fall.

Watch for comingt issues of our DKSSF and Hope Fund newsletters to learn more about them.

Hope Fund scholar Mohammed Abumaileq graduated in May from the University of Rochester.

impact

NEWSLETTER | SUMMER 2021

NEW CENTERS SUPPORT EGYPTIAN STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES Amideast is committed to a vision of a world in which all people have access to opportunities that enable them to go as far as their dreams, talents, and dedication can take them. In Egypt, we have been putting that commitment into action by promoting disability inclusion in Egyptian higher education.

This multi-year effort resulted in a March conference and official launch of centers dedicated to supporting people with disabilities at five Egyptian public universities. The role of the new university disability service centers at Ain Shams, Alexandria, Assiut, Cairo, and Mansoura Universities is to ensure that the universities provide equal access to quality education for students with disabilities.

The effort to create the centers came about through a partnership between Amideast, the U.S. aid agency USAID through its funding of the Amideast-managed HEI Public University Scholarships Program, Egypt’s Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research, and Helm Consulting for Inclusive Solutions, a private Egyptian organization that works to integrate and train people with disabilities.

Historically in Egypt, as in many Arab countries, students with disabilities have faced barriers to enter higher education in their desired fields, or to be fully included in their programs with their peers. Barriers included regulations that limited what people with some disabilities could study, social perspectives that assumed that a person with a disability would not be able to complete coursework in certain practical fields, and physical barriers that limited movement or access to materials. The centers’ role is to reduce and remove the barriers, which contribute to low graduation rates.

The new disability centers include the Taha Hussein Center for Students with Disabilities at Alexandria University.

the central evaluation office to ensure that planning for final exams considered accessibility for students with disabilities.

The idea to create the centers evolved from Amideast’s experience managing an inclusive scholarship program at public universities, a needs assessment conducted

by USAID on the conditions of disabled students at public higher education institutions in Egypt, and the implementation of a new 2018 law on disability in Egypt, which applied new requirements to universities. “Our five public university partners were eager to sign on to this program to develop their support for their students with disabilities. They have committed significant time and resources to launch and develop this model for public university disability centers in Egypt,” Program Director Dermody added.

Quincy Dermody, Chief of Party of the Public University Scholarships Program, emphasizes that, “while the project activities include the provision of accessible technology and equipment, the main focus is on advocacy, processes, and policies that enable students to participate fully in their education with their peers—by advocating for inclusion, by providing fair accommodations, by educating and supporting professors, and by building awareness of the barriers that are disabling students with impairments.”

The universities provided and renovated space to be fully accessible in line with Egyptian and international regulations, and designated staff to run the centers.

Amideast organized a study tour of faculty members, university administrators, and a representative from the Ministry of Higher Education to visit the Universities of Montana and Colorado to learn about possible functions and structures for university disability centers and to explore what concepts could be applied in Egypt to promote inclusion. Further training and coaching in Egypt addressed technical and management content including creating bylaws, project management, fundraising, and communications, to support the centers in the implementation of their action plans.

The centers demonstrated their value already a year ago, as the pandemic hit. Although they were not fully open or equipped, staff had been trained and were therefore able to provide support that enabled students with disabilities to fully participate after the universities closed and students moved to remote learning. They stayed in touch with students through Facebook, phone calls, and online surveys and communicated with faculties to provide support and to help solve student problems. The Alexandria University Taha Hussein Disability Service Center printed over 2,100 pages of printed braille student course materials, made 19 hours of voice recordings, and coordinated with faculties and

Setting up the new service centers is just a first step.

The model developed by the centers will be shared with all Egyptian universities at a conference in December.

Amideast will continue to support the centers through the end of the scholarship program in 2024. It is also supporting the Ministry of Higher Education in establishing a committee on disability that can assess universities’ level of inclusion and spread the disability service center model to other universities in Egypt.

“Truly, this is a very important project, and I envision that it will make a huge shift in achieving accessibility,” said Dr. Khaled Atef Abdel Ghaffar, Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research.

CELEBRATING OUR FULBRIGHT PARTNERSHIP (cont'd from p. 1) The accomplishments of these illustrious alumni— and of all 3,200 Fulbright grantees whose programs Amideast administered since 1970—make us especially proud to join in the celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Fulbright Program this year. As alumni of the flagship exchange program of the U.S. Department of State, they exemplify the Fulbright ideal of passionate and accomplished students, scholars, artists, teachers, and professionals of all backgrounds who, having enriched their educations and careers through their exchange experience, have also made meaningful contributions upon returning home.

The first grantees whose programs Amideast administered came from Jordan, Lebanon, and the West Bank. Soon, other countries and areas were added to our roster, beginning with Algeria in 1972, followed by Egypt (1979), Morocco (1980), Tunisia (1981), Bahrain (1985), Gaza (1987), Iraq (2008), Libya (2008), and the United Arab Emirates (2009). The number of participants continued to grow as well. Amideast now supports nearly 300 students on program each year, in addition to the placement and orientation of approximately 150 incoming students.

Our partnership doesn’t end there, however. Over the years, Amideast also administered the Fulbright Foreign Student Program for Oman, Syria, and Yemen (programs that are currently paused); Iran, Kuwait, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia; as well as countries outside

the MENA region—including Cyprus, Sudan, Mauritania, Pakistan, and Turkey.

In recent years, Amideast has also administered group professional development programs for junior university faculty from Iraq, Egypt, and Jordan on select themes. Our country offices are also involved with Fulbright alumni who return home, helping them to stay connected and build on their Fulbright experience through activities such as the Fulbright Alumni Development Grant and Fulbright Alumni Community Action Grant programs.

To date, more than 5,400 Fulbright Foreign Student grants have been awarded to recipients from the Middle East and North Africa—the majority of them with the direct support of Amideast and many in partnership with the binational Fulbright commissions in Egypt, Jordan, and Morocco. Join us on social media or check our website to learn more about our distinguished alumni. Throughout the year, we will be celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Fulbright Program by highlighting notable alumni from the MENA region.

AMERICAN CORNER IN ALEXANDRIA LAUNCHES! Amideast/Egypt was pleased to welcome U.S. Ambassador Jonathan R. Cohen to its center in Alexandria, Egypt, for the formal opening of the new American Corner, housed in the well-known historic building that Amideast acquired in January 2020 following renovations to accommodate it. Under Amideast's management, the Corner has already begun to make a difference through its offerings of educational and cultural activities.

The American Corner in Alexandria is the latest addition to Amideast's growing portfolio of cultural centers that it manages in partnership with the U.S. Department of State. They include American Houses in the West Bank and Gaza, six American Corners in Iraqi universities, and American Corners in Tunis and Sousse.

Shahinaz Ahmed, Amideast's country director for Egypt, and U.S. Ambassador to Egypt, Jonathan Cohen, cut the ribbon during the opening ceremony.