Cairo – Ashraf Abo Arafe
The Embassy of Switzerland, the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and the social enterprise Bassita will host an event on Thursday 31st October, 2019 to celebrate the success of their joint #WeCompleteEachOther campaign that was launched on 18th of July this year to support the integration of migrants and refugees in Egypt. The event will be attended by the actor Asser Yassin, who took part in the campaign.
The campaign, supported by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Youth and Sports, highlighted the benefits of diversity through depicting a social experiment moderated by famous Egyptian movie star Asser Yassin. On a stage participants in the experiment were asked whether they could identify with various statements read. Shared human experiences showed the participants just how much they have in common despite their different backgrounds.
The online campaign consisted of a short video starring Asser Yassin (IOM goodwill ambassador for migration) and directed by Sherif El Bendary. Alban de Ménonville, director and co-founder of Bassita, explained that “although many challenges remain, the road is paved for people to loudly claim that Egypt is a land of hospitality for the 145 nationalities it hosts. This is, to me, one of the biggest achievements of this project”.
The initiative was developed as a clickfunding campaign, calling on social media users to interact with it in order to reach a goal of 250,000 interactions within a span of one week. The campaign significantly surpassed its goal, reaching more than one million people on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and television (as shown on the show of famous TV presenter Mona ElShazly). The IOM has committed to implementing entrepreneurial trainings for 300 Egyptians and migrants/refugees to open local businesses in Egypt, further contributing to the economic growth of the country.
The event on Thursday 31st October will celebrate the campaign’s positive impact. Some beneficiaries of the trainings will present their projects to the audience, who will also have a chance to watch the short campaign video. Essentially, the event will honour diversity and the principles promoted and cherished by the campaign’s partners. This project has highlighted that, in the words of Corinne Henchoz Pignani, Director of the Swiss Embassy’s Office for International Cooperation, “the more one knows her/himself, the more one realizes how much human beings have in common, beyond identity, faith or gender.” The Swiss Embassy’s support for this campaign has shown that indeed “embracing diversity is one of the key factors of Switzerland’s success story”.
