Monday 06 April 2026 – 04:04 PM
Today, Monday, witnessed the signing of a cooperation protocol with the Charitable Investment Fund to Support People with Disabilities “Ataa,” and the Coptic Evangelical Organization for Social Services, to launch the second phase of the “Towards Inclusive Egyptian Universities” project, within the framework of supporting equal educational opportunities and promoting the integration of students with disabilities within Egyptian universities.
The signing of the protocol came in the presence of Dr. Reverend Andre Zaki, head of the Evangelical community in Egypt and head of the Coptic Evangelical Authority for Social Services, Sherif Sami, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Ataa Fund, Mumtaz Bishai, Vice President of the Coptic Evangelical Authority for Social Services, Amira Al-Rifai, Executive Director of the Ataa Fund, and a number of leaders from both parties.
Ataa Fund, the first charitable investment fund in Egypt to support and empower people with disabilities, licensed by the Financial Regulatory Authority, reflects a trend towards enhancing the concept of sustainable charitable investment, which aims to achieve a long-term development impact by financing specific projects that contribute to improving the quality of life and enhancing independence for people with disabilities, and the Coptic Evangelical Authority for Social Services, one of the most prominent civil work institutions recognized by the Ministry of Social Solidarity.
In his speech during the signing ceremony, Dr. Reverend Andre Zaki expressed his happiness with this cooperation, stressing that the project comes within the framework of a national vision that seeks to build a more just and inclusive society, based on enhancing human dignity and consolidating human rights, especially the rights of people with disabilities.
Dr. Rev. Andre Zaki pointed out that the Authority adopts an approach based on empowering people with disabilities, and working to remove barriers that hinder their full participation in society, whether material, intellectual, or institutional. He pointed out that the partnership with the “Ataa” Fund represents a model of integration between development work and sustainable social investment, adding that the Ataa Fund is a distinguished experience as it is the first charitable investment fund in Egypt concerned with empowering people with disabilities, as it works to employ financial resources to achieve returns that are pumped back into relevant development projects. Sustainable impact.
For his part, Sherif Samy stressed that the Ataa Fund continues to support initiatives that achieve a sustainable impact in the field of empowering people with disabilities, noting that the project represents an important step towards enhancing accessibility within Egyptian universities and supporting the right to inclusive education.
He explained that the Fund works according to a charitable investment model that aims to achieve sustainability, by directing the proceeds to support effective development projects that make a real impact in the lives of the beneficiaries, stressing that the “Towards Inclusive Egyptian Universities – Phase Two” project is the largest funding provided by the Fund to a civil society organization, which is the Coptic Evangelical Organization for Social Services.
He added that cooperation with the Coptic Evangelical Authority reflects a shared belief in the importance of integrating efforts between civil society institutions, in order to empower people with disabilities and enhance their opportunities for education and a decent life.
The two parties announced the launch of the project “Towards Inclusive Egyptian Universities – Phase Two,” stressing that it represents an extension of the successes of the first phase, which contributed to improving accessibility within a number of Egyptian universities and enhancing the integration of students with disabilities within the university environment.
The project aims to enhance the comprehensiveness of university education by developing the engineering infrastructure in accordance with accessibility standards, and supporting the capabilities of universities to provide integrated services, in addition to spreading awareness of modern concepts of disability, which contributes to changing the prevailing culture towards empowerment and equality.
The project is being implemented in a number of Egyptian universities, within the vision of the Ataa Fund to support the rights of persons with disabilities, foremost of which is the right to fair and equal university education, as it is one of the basic paths to building a more independent and participatory future. By supporting an inclusive educational environment that removes obstacles for students with disabilities, and enables them to access knowledge, services, and facilities on an equal basis with their peers, opening up broader horizons for learning, qualification, active participation, and creating a better future for them.
Based on the accumulated experience that the Coptic Evangelical Organization has achieved in development work for decades, it works to support the most vulnerable groups without discrimination, especially people with disabilities, through integrated programs that include economic and social empowerment, in addition to specific initiatives such as the “Irada” factory to manufacture and provide prosthetic devices.
The launch of this phase comes as a continuation of the tangible success achieved in the first phase of the project funded by the Ataa Fund, and with its technical support, on spatial accessibility work in accordance with the Egyptian Engineering Code at the Universities of Zagazig and Menoufia, which contributed to improving the ease of movement within the university campus, and promoting a more supportive and inclusive educational environment for students with disabilities.
