L’Oréal honors 1st two Egyptian female doctors winning 2019 International Awards for Social Responsibility in Dermatology

L’Oréal honored the first two Egyptian female doctors winning the 2019 International Awards for Social Responsibility in Dermatology.

Prof. Dalia Gamal Aly and Dr. Ragia Hany Weshahy of the Dermatology at the National Research Center in Giza, Egypt, filed a project in a collaboration with the Ahl Masr Foundation, an Egyptian non-profit organization providing support to burn victims and offering a preventive and awareness programs on burn accidents and their consequences to the most marginalized communities.

The project aims to provide treatment to burn victims, to help their rehabilitation into the community and to work on the prevention and the development of safe practices in order to limit burn injuries.

The actions carried out include identification of risk factors that may result in burn injuries; improvement of awareness on how to treat burn injuries; education of vulnerable groups (prevention measures, fire-fighting techniques, first aid measures…); financing and connecting vulnerable populations with hospital burn care units; providing free dermatological treatment and psychological support and raising awareness on burn accident prevention is important for vulnerable groups such as women and children. Education on burn first aid minimizes the impact of the injuries.

Within the project program, burn patients are able to travel to hospitals with a burn care unit where a highly qualified medical team (including surgeons, dermatologists, and psychotherapists) can take care of them. The treatment expenses are waived for these patients. With burn care and psychological help, patients regain self-esteem and quality of life.

Since the beginning of the project in 2013, more than 1,000 burn victims have benefited from this program of dermatological care.

With the grant, the awardees would like to extend the project to create help for more burn victims and set up a robust monitoring and evaluation system to assess current treatment and improve patient outcomes.

The project is one of five projects that won the 2019 International Awards for Social Responsibility in Dermatology. The five projects included three Egyptian projects, one Lebanese and one Nigerien.

The five projects were selected for being able to make a difference for people facing skin issues. Each winning project is rewarded with a €20,000 grant, allowing the awardees to continue their work.

About 123 applications were submitted by dermatologists from 34 different countries all around the world to join the contest.

L’Oréal, in partnership with the International League of Dermatological Societies (ILDS) and the World Congress of Dermatology (WCD), developed the International Awards for Social Responsibility in Dermatology.

The International Awards for Social Responsibility in Dermatology aim to reward and capture these initiatives and projects led by dermatologists as individuals, in an association or a hospital. These projects focus on patients with the aim of improving their physical and psychological well-being, self-esteem, social integration and skin health, independently of their medical treatment, enabling them to re-engage socially.

Thanks to this initiative, L’Oréal, the ILDS and the WCD, want to help recognize dermatology and dermatologists as key actors in social responsibility. They wish to the celebrate and shed light on wonderful social initiatives undertaken by dermatologists all around the world.