Project Nitrous and Giza Systems Foundation organized and hosted the MEGA Competition 2021. The competition took place nationally across Egypt, and our participants were from the following communities: marginalized women and people with disabilities. This event aimed to enable and empower individuals and/or groups to launch their social start-up that provides solutions to either of the following tracks:
Graphene: Consumers interested in using upcycled products, need to easily find affordable and good quality upcycled products in the market. Because there is a shortage of good quality available worthy products.
Nitrous: Children with learning disabilities need an effective way to facilitate the process of learning because they have problems with distraction and academic information collection.
Our MEGA Competition began on the 31st of October and ended on the 23rd of November. In those four weeks, the participants received a variety of courses: Design Thinking, Social Entrepreneurship, Upcycling, Digital Transformation Applications, Assistive Technologies, and Digital Manufacturing for Social Enterprises. They also received training on different technological applications and machines.
By the end of the competition, each participant was able to develop a prototype and pitch their ideas to our judging panelists. The winners of our competition demonstrated passion, commitment, creativity, and hard work, and they are; Azza Ismail, Heba Ismail, Lamiaa Eissa, and Abdou Farhat.
Azza Ismail: جدد هدومك (Renew your clothes)
Azza Ismail is a 45-year-old stay-at-home wife from Shandawil Village, Sohag. She joined the competition and was determined to develop a social start-up that would help preserve the environment. Throughout the competition, Azza has faced many challenges, but that has not held her back! In fact, these challenges became her key motivation. She chose the "Graphene: Upcycling" track because sewing has always been her hobby.
After stumbling across a news article that mentioned the high waste percentage generated by fast fashion, Azza decided to upcycle old clothes into new ones through the use of digital fabrication machines. This is to ensure that quality is maintained and production speed is unified. Also, Azza aims to create a brand that is affordable for the families within her community. And this was how جدد هدومك (Renew your clothes) was born! Watch the video to know more about her start-up.
Heba Ismail: بيكيا كرافت (Bekia Craft)
Heba Ismail is 23-years-old from Shandawil Village, Sohag, and is passionate about upcycling because, to her, it is a form of expressive art. Heba noticed that many young girls and women, from her village, upcycle different items in their homes to create new products. However, she realized that these young girls and women have no method of marketing and selling their products to people outside of their village due to the lack of resources available.
After joining the Mega Competition, Heba was eager to make a difference in her community. So, she chose the "Graphene: Upcycling" track and decided to develop a platform that allows women of different ages to place their upcycled products to market and sell them. This platform aims to provide new opportunities and a sustainable income for the women in the village and Egypt which is called بيكيا كرافت (Bekia Craft)
Two Ideas Into One
Azza and Heba came up with solutions that enable and empower their community while preserving the environment by providing sustainable items at affordable costs. Although each of their start-up ideas may seem different, they still go hand-in-hand! Now, both of these women will integrate their ideas into a single startup.
Abdou Farhat: رفيقي (Rafiki)
Abdou Farhat is a 25-year-old who joined Project Nitrous, as a community member with a motor disability, in 2019 and has been involved with the project ever since. Helping and empowering others, by coming up with solutions that can solve or simplify the challenges others may encounter, is his motivation and determination. He participated in Nitrous Competition 2019 and 2020 but was not selected as the winner. However, Abdou did not lose hope and applied for this year's competition and won!
This year, he chose the "Nitrous: Learning Disability" track. Abdou wanted to create an app that empowers children with learning disabilities. To build his app, رفيقي (Rafiki), he researched and spoke with different experts about children with learning disabilities to ensure that the app and its content will be beneficial to the children and their parents. The Rafiki app aims to lead children to the path of independence and self-reliance.
Lamiaa Essia: هدية بأيديا (Handmade Gifts)
Lamiaa Essia is a 30-year-old from Fayoum and is currently working a full-time job. Despite her disability, she is always ready to learn and seize opportunities! She joined the competition and chose the "Graphene: Upcycling" track because she has always been interested in finding different methods to reduce waste.
Her social start-up idea is to gather the fabric waste from manufacturers and develop them into handmade gifts هدية بأيديا while using digital fabrication machines. Also, she aims to empower women by training them on the methods of upcycling and how to use digital fabrication machines to produce a product.
If you are interested to know more about each start-up and/or could provide resources that could potentially accelerate these social start-ups, then please reach out to us via email: Contact@projectnitrous.com or click here to leave us a message.
To be part of our MEGA Competition 2022 click on the button below!
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