On March 26, 2018, CIDT presented the book The 2014 Constitution: Perspectives from Egypt to H.E. Amr Moussa [ʿAmrū Mūsā], at Heliopolis University for Sustainable Development. The event was opened by Helmy Abouleish [Ḥilmī Abū al-ʿeīsh], chairman of the board of trustees of the university, and was attended by H.E. Ambassador L. Westhoff of the Netherlands, Mr. Hossam Abdelqadir [Ḥussām ʿAbd al-Qādir] of the Governorate of Assiut, 9 of our interns, 2 staff, co-founder Mr. Cherif Esmat Abdelmeguid [Shirīf ʿEṣmat ʿAbd al-Majīd], and around 230 students from Heliopolis University for Sustainable Development.

The University was founded in only 2012 by Dr. Ibrahim Abouleish [Ibrahīm Abū al-ʿeīsh], Helmy Abouleish’s father, and is all focused on promoting sustainable development in Egypt. Sustainability also means intercultural dialogue in a way. We have to accept that people are different, yet we need to work towards developing Egypt as one hand. German intern Simone Osterwald made an excellent PowerPoint presentation about the Center for Arab-West Understanding (CAWU) and the Center for Intercultural Dialogue and Translation (CITD). We have served 240 interns in the past ten years, and with this we have become the largest internship provider in Egypt. The key in our internship program is that our office is extremely culturally diverse. Simone showed this in the following graphics:

In 2011 and 2012 we experienced a dip due to Egyptian revolution of 2011 and the following unrest. The dip in 2014 followed the removal of president Morsi which was followed by attacks on police and military. Also in 2017, we again experienced a dip due to talks to force foreign tourists to apply for visa in their home countries before coming to Egypt, as that would be an obstacle for those living far away from an Embassy or a Consulate. In 2018, numbers are increasing again.

Our interns are very diverse:

Heliopolis University for Sustainable Development and the Center for Intercultural Dialogue and Translation signed a Memorandum of Understanding, to explore further cooperation, and to organize a summer school in the summer of 2018. The MoU was co-signed by H.E. Amr Moussa and H.E. Ambassador L. Westhoff as witnesses.

Cornelis Hulsman, Ambassador L. Westhoff, H.E. Amr Moussa and Helmy Abouleish.

The presentations were a resounding success! Egyptian media reported this widely. See:

http://www.vetogate.com/ 3122099

http://www.elmogaz.com/node/ 454411

http://www.elzmannews.com/ topics/18/03/27/131387.html

http://www.albawabhnews.com/ 3019124

http://www.wataninet.com/2018/ 03/%D8%AC%D8%A7%D9%85%D8%B9% D8%A9-%D9%87%D9%84%D9%8A%D9% 88%D8%A8%D9%88%D9%84%D9%8A%D8% B3-%D8%AA%D9%88%D9%82%D8%B9-% D9%85%D8%B0%D9%83%D8%B1%D8%A9- %D8%AA%D9%81%D8%A7%D9%87%D9% 85-%D9%85%D8%B9-%D9%85%D8%B1/

http://elbashayeronline.com/ news-973041.html

 http://shbabbek.com/show/ 138527 

http://www.kashqol.com/4683

For more pictures from the event, please click here.

Cornelis Hulsman,

Director Center for Intercultural Dialogue and Translation (CIDT)