Dawar el-Funoon
Category: Arts and Culture Center
Target groups: Women, men, children, and youth
Main field: Arts and Culture
Setting: Urban and rural
Year founded: 2012
Target groups: Women, men, children, and youth
Main field: Arts and Culture
Setting: Urban and rural
Year founded: 2012
Dawar el-Funoon is an arts and culture center in Minya, which promotes art in Upper Egypt, as the area lacks enough arts centers. Dawar not only aims to change that by promoting art in Upper Egypt, but it also aims to preserve heritage, provide a cultural space for all artists to share their experiences, provide artists with the appropriate environment to develop their skills, and bridge the gap between artists and their audiences. This is done through organizing cultural meetings, art festivals, workshops, etc.
Main Activity:
Creating art spaces and incubating independent artists and groups
Ongoing projects
- Jewellery-making workshop
- Sewing workshops
- English language club for young girls
Past projects
- Interactive theatre training to combat violence against women. The project held a ToT program that worked with women in theatre to help them pass on their training to others in their village.
- Art and photography exhibitions on the various forms of violence that Egyptian women face in villages or cities, such as being denied the right to work
- A project that worked with female fish vendors in arts and development through life coaching
- Celebrated International Women's Day with Ishtar Initiative
- Collaborated with Goethe Institute on the "Igamdy" (Be Strong) Initiative. "Igmady" raised awareness of the prevalence of harassment and offered women and young girls self-defense classes
- Worked with the Evangelical Foundation on a project for young girls who have dropped out of school. The project worked on methods of making education appealing to them through theatre, art, journalism, and music workshops.
- Two research papers were submitted. The papers discussed harassment in primary and secondary school stages and designed research programs for the eradication of harassment (Al-Barjaya,Tala, and Minya). A preventive program to stop harassment before it happens was also designed and discussed.