The term 'social entrepreneur', I think, requires re-visiting. I would like to advise anyone embarking on a career or a changing path to look at business as an enterprise that must include people’s well-being all around. Not just me and my company or my NGO and the money we’re gonna make. So enterprises must be fair, equitable, just...my advice is that for us to challenge the definitions of what entrepreneurship is, what profit is. I must not just look at the money at the end of my annual statement. I must look at the well-being of everybody around me because we live in one planet...and if we continue to look at grabbing things and doing well by ourselves, it’s not going to be sustainable...You must examine the whole concept of business and profit from an angle that says: if it’s not social, then it’s bad business. [11]
— Laila Iskander, Interview with Global X
Authorship
Dr. Iskander acted as Director and Lead Author of the Business Solutions for Human Development Report 2007 on Egypt. [12] In 1994, she authored a book titled Mokattam garbage village, Cairo, Egypt.
Notable contributions
Mokattam Recycling School
Dr. Iskander's contributions include her notable work with the zabbaleen or garbage collectors, in Egypt, where she established an informal recycling school in 1982 to teach children basic literacy, health and hygiene [13] - a project for which she received the Goldman Environmental Prize in 1994. [14]
Her work with the garbage collectors includes a "learning and earning" rug-weaving program ("Kamel’s Rug-Weaving Center"), in which girls from the zabbaleen community weave rugs on a hand-loom using discarded cotton. The project integrated an educational program to teach the girls basic math and literacy and facilitated the sale of their rugs at handicraft fairs for profit. [14]
Sinai Recycling Project
The know-how of waste management in Manshiyat Naser on the outskirts of Cairo was transferred to the Egyptian tourist towns of Dahab and Nuweiba in 1997, [14] when Kamel cooperated with social entrepreneur Sherif El-Ghamrawy – eco-lodge owner and founder of environmental protection organization "Hemaya" (Arabic for "Protection"). [15] The project involved separating and dividing organic and non-organic waste and delivering non-organic waste to a sorting and processing transfer station to be re-used and recycled; organic waste was delivered to Sinai Bedouin who used it to feed their cattle, thus preventing environmental degradation caused by unorganized waste disposal methods. [16]
The processing transfer station was established to absorb the large volume of alcohol bottles, plastic, cardboard and other recyclable materials from tourism establishments and provide a healthy source of income from the re-sale of plastics and glass both locally and internationally. [15]
Awards
In 1994, Dr. Iskander received the Goldman Environmental Prize for her early work with the zabbaleen [14]
At the World Economic Forum in Sharm el-Sheikh in 2006, she and her organization – CID Consulting – received the Schwab Award for Social Entrepreneurship for their design and implementation of a "learning and earning" project for children of the zaballeen with fast-moving consumer goods Procter & Gamble Egypt.[ citation needed ]
Personal life
Related Research Articles
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References
- ↑ "Who's who in El-Sisi's new cabinet". Cairo Post. 16 June 2014. Retrieved 22 June 2014.
- ↑ "BREAKING: New government swears in". Cairo Post. 17 June 2014. Retrieved 22 June 2014.
- ↑ Who's Who: Egypt's Full Interim Cabinet
- ↑ Hend Kortam and Rana Muhammad Taha, Egypt’s new interim cabinet, Daily News Egypt , 18 July 2013.
- ↑ "Bt - Full Story". Archived from the original on 19 August 2006. Retrieved 27 September 2010.
- 1 2 3 4 "FIELD / IIED Board of Trustees | Foundation for International Environmental Law and Development". www.field.org.uk. Archived from the original on 19 November 2010. Retrieved 2 February 2022.
- ↑ "CID Consulting - CID BOARD". Cid.com.eg. Archived from the original on 13 March 2012. Retrieved 15 June 2012.
- ↑ Hanna, Mariam. "DRPD".
- ↑ "Board of Trustees | International Institute for Environment and Development". Archived from the original on 19 July 2010. Retrieved 27 September 2010.
- ↑ "How the cwg is organized – CWG community site". Cwgnet.net. 13 September 2010. Archived from the original on 13 March 2012. Retrieved 15 June 2012.
- ↑ "Laila Iskandar - CID Consulting – Social Edge". Socialedge.org. Archived from the original on 25 November 2011. Retrieved 15 June 2012.
- ↑ "Business Solutions Report" (PDF). 2007. Archived from the original on 9 December 2008. Retrieved 15 June 2012.
- ↑ "Conservation Heroes of Africa" . Retrieved 15 June 2012.
- 1 2 3 4 "The Goldman Prize". Archived from the original on 20 March 2012. Retrieved 15 June 2012.
- 1 2 "In Cairo's Trash City, School Teaches Reading, Recycling | PBS NewsHour | Feb. 16, 2010". PBS. 16 February 2010. Archived from the original on 18 February 2010. Retrieved 15 June 2012.
- ↑ "Et - Full Story". egypttoday.com. Archived from the original on 28 June 2010. Retrieved 17 January 2022.
- ↑ "Egypt Cabinet has women, Christians; no Islamists". Associated Press News . 16 July 2013. Retrieved 29 January 2023.
External links
- Global X Interview Iskandar on Social Entrepreneurship
- DW TV Interview Iskandar on Recycling in Manshiyat Naser
- Laila Iskander, Cairo: A story of waste mis management, Al Ahram Weekly, 22–28 Oct. 2009, retrieved 04 Oct. 2010
- Iskander, Laila, No time to waste, Al Ahram Weekly, 2–8 July 2009, retrieved 04 Oct. 2010
- UNDP Business Solutions' Report 2007, retrieved 04 Oct. 2010
- Laila Iskander, Towards the inclusive city, Al Ahram Weekly, 28 June - 4 July 2007, retrieved 04 Oct. 2010
- Laila Iskander, Educating Working Children, Al Ahram Weekly, 21–27 Sept. 2006, retrieved 04 Oct. 2010
Laila Iskander | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Minister of Urban Development | |
| In office 17 June 2014 –19 September 2015 |