Resala is an unconventional youth-fueled charity organization that is expanding at a staggering speed while maintaining its stability at the same time. The Nasr City branch marks the seventh Resala branch in Cairo and the thirty second Resala branch in Egypt. Each Resala branch is a whole building with several services present in each floor. Services offered include:
- Free computer courses.
- Illiteracy courses.
- Free private lessons for school students.
- Services for the blind, the deaf and children of special needs.
- Hosting and bringing up of orphaned children.
- Collecting and distributing used clothes to the poor.
- Distributing food for the poor.
- A regular monthly blood donation campaign.
- Direct assistance to poor families.
- Free medical checkups.
- ... and much much more
The above are just a few of the many activities that Resala offers in each of its rapidly expanding number of branches across Egypt.
Even the traditional service of taking care of orphaned children, Resala implements it in a nontraditional way. Each orphaned child in every Resala branch has a number of big brothers and big sisters whom take full responsibility of visiting him/her, applying for his/her school, taking him/her to the doctor ... etc and visiting him/her on a regular basis.
Another successful Resala initiative was the 10 LE initiative. Each volunteers participating in this initiative agree to donate 10 LE to Resala each month. Although the amount of money is small from each volunteer, yet the stability of the income to Resala helps it to survive and be able to offer its many services to community in a stable way. Of course those who want their monthly payment to be more (or less) than 10 LE per month may do so. The idea is to have a constant income to enable better planning instead of getting random burst of donations. A collector can be sent to your house to collect the donation.
The used clothes project is also one of the most successful activities at Resala. If you want to donate your used clothes, you do not have to bring them yourself to a Resala branch, all you have to do is just call Resala and tell them you have some used clothes you would like to donate and they will send someone to you to collect your used clothes.
The idea behind Resala started several years ago by Dr Sherif Abdel Azim (PhD) who lectured at the Faculty of Engineering at Cairo University where Resala was born. He now lectures at the AUC. Resala was and is still fueled mainly by university students and fresh graduates yet younger and older volunteers also participate. Resala relies heavily on it's large and growing volunteer base to achieve its goals and offer its wide range of services to the community.
My first involvement with Resala was several years back at their Mohandiseen branch. I was involved in the training service they were launching there. A few years later, I was so glad that the Masr El Gedida (Heliopolis) branch of Resala was launched. It was much closer to my home than the Mohandiseen branch. I started volunteering there and delivered a number of computer courses. I also attended sign language training there in order to be able to communicate with the deaf.
My dream finally came true when the Nasr City branch of Resala opened last week. It is 15 minutes walking distance from my home. The Nasr City branch of Resala is located in 2 Zaki Rostom street from Hasanain Haikal street which is near the intersection of Abbas El Akkad and El Batrawy streets. Here is a map of its location:
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The vertical blue line is Abbas El Akkad street. The fork and knife sign is Genena Mall. The accessibility (wheel chair) sign is Resala Nasr City.
The Resala dream is to have a Resala branch in every corner of Egypt just as McDonald's.
If you would like to donate your used clothes or need to ask about anything related to Resala just call 19450 and the Resala branch nearest to you will answer.
