A background on Orzqyat El said

Orzqyat Elsaid is the blog's name for ” The women of El Minya day by day” project.May be you will have a question why we call it Orzqyat Elsaid? let me explain what is Orzqyat mean? and who are they?

Orzqyat is a slang Arabic feminine plural name, means women who are earning their living day by day.

El said is also an Arabic vocab for Upper Egypt. So Orzqyat El said is women who are earning their living day by day in Upper Egypt. El-Minya is a one of the greatest governorates in Upper Egypt and usually called the bride of it! This is fact the most place which is the Nile river is wide and so beautiful is in El-Minya beside the great mementoes, you should visit one day.

Most probably Orzqyat are women with no education or with low level of it, you can consider some of them as women and girls miss regular education.

Actually when you get a chance to read more about Egypt, you will find that Education is no longer a condition for getting regular jobs and stabile carrier. Unemployment rates, corruption, and lack of good governances are really depth rooted and developing in a high speed.

In a centralized country like Egypt, I think you can imagine or at least had expectations for what the Upper Egypt states could be?!! anyhow you will not be alone any longer. Women and Girls of Dawadaya village with our team will help you to know more about rural women life in Egypt, challenges and opportunities for social change.

Our project aims to establish Orzqyat El-said blog, we had a draft one . Acknowledging it as a blog narrating rural women life through their eyes. With time the blog will address and monitor the states of education, health especially reproductive health, economic, political and all ales related to social and economic women rights in Dawadaya village which exist in the east of El-Minya.

This blog also will documenting Dawadaya's girls creation: arts, drawing, folkloric songs, and  poetry, as will recognize the important and effective women in public life came from Dawadaya,and the steak holders in the community . Also we have to assure that the blog will express the girls dreams for social change and demanding for their rights.

All the uploaded martial is a participatory effort between the blog team and the Dawadaya women and girls as  participant target group who will take intensive training on new and citizenship media.

Project challenges

Participants educational level and the fear of  technology.

I think that the philosophy of rising voices aims to give voice for voiceless. So it is normally expecting a such challenge the low level of education of participants which it followed by fear of technology.

We can encourage participants to express them selves with art, songs, tales, drawing and photographing, it is a kind of development with art.

Also we believe that there are always a deep intention and well for self development, there is  an effort demanded from us to simplifying training material, tools and language to encourage them to get involved with technology and use  computers.

Most probably we will dedicate sessions for photographing and video shoots and recording with exercising it with each other and chose simple targets for photographing and video. Let us believe in their creativity.

Lack of computers

We knew that Bant El Reaf association, by the way the name means the daughter of the country is suffering from lack of computers and internet accesses, but the project will provide two computers with flashes to access for internet, and simple camera and a recorder.

Also we will networking them with other organizations with good capacity to provide a lab during the training courses and open their doors at any  time for them.

Training workshops

Participants number : 10 girls
Training  workshops : three workshops, the first one is a foundating one and the other two workshops are going to be practical   in addition  frequent visits.
Training period : three days per each.

Training agenda:

The first day :

Session (1)

Introductory session on rural women right and gender sensitivity, scheduling topics and priorities to address in the blog.

Session (2)

Why & How to advocate for our rights on line? Issuing emails& viewing blogs themes with exercises in working groups.

Creating a blog for exercising call a doll

The second day

Session (1)
Blog abilities & widgets & sharing skills with exercises in working groups.

Session (2)
Recording & photography

Session (3)
video shoots basics

The third day

A practical day, selecting topics and start recording, narrating, writing small posts and take shoots for you tube in working groups.

A draft blog had been released

We start the blog as (draft one) may after the first training the participants would like other themes. So we consider it till now as draft one start it with two appetites posts narrated from the girls, with an English translation.

the first titled “El Dawadaya is our village name”, and the second one is “the mountain who survive our homes and eats our children!”, as we begin categorize the posts with dangers work and rural development, as we use a box for shelving resources to provide visitors and researchers with interesting resources on rural women development; the first resource is the report on human resources development  2010- Arabic edition.

Actually we can add more posts and resources and more icons but we really care for participation with the girls and want them to feel that it is really their blog. we know that they have a wonderful unexpected ideas we may haven't imagine. So let us conduct the first training workshop and hear from them more.., and then we will release a very expressive blog.

Please feel free to advise me and provide ideas,  we can do a great things together.
Have a primary visit and wait for more during September.
Next post : Why we chose  to work with Bent El-Reef association in El- Dawadaia