El Gouna Film Festival, Sawiris Foundation launch handicraft competition

04 / 07 / 2019

By أحمد عامر | Edited by Marwa Nassar

El Gouna Film Festival (GFF), in partnership with the Sawiris Foundation for Social Development (SFDS), launched a handicraft competition to encourage Egyptian artisans and craftsmen and support them in the practice of their craftsmanship and talents.

The competition also aims at promoting and showcasing indigenously made Egyptian hand-crafted products, and introducing Egypt to the world through quality products that reflect the Egyptian history, identity, and culture.

El Gouna Film Festival, in partnership with Sawiris Foundation for Social Development, launched a handicraft competition to encourage Egyptian artisans and craftsmen and support them in the practice of their craftsmanship and talents. The competition also aims at promoting and showcasing indigenously made Egyptian hand-crafted products, and introducing Egypt to the world through quality products that reflect the Egyptian history, identity, and culture.

Through this competition, an opportunity will be provided to organizations working in the field of handicrafts and heritage to submit their proposals for the design and execution of a promotional gift bag for the 3rd edition of El Gouna Film Festival.

“Preserving, protecting and sustaining the skills and knowledge of traditional crafts is a growing challenge all around the world. Handcrafted items should be given due respect, and the artisans the recognition they deserve for their skills. GFF is delighted to make a contribution towards the efforts of the Sawiris Foundation for Social Development (SFSD) in this direction and we are very excited about this collaboration,” said Amr Mansi, CEO of El Gouna Film Festival.

“We are delighted to partner with El Gouna Film Festival and thrilled to be part of this project, which aims to empower the Egyptian artisans economically, revive the heritage, enhance the Egyptian handicrafts sector and support the Egyptian products that are characterized by high quality and splendid designs,” said Noura Selim, Executive Director of Sawiris Foundation for Social Development.

The Sawiris Foundation for Social Development (SFSD) was founded in 2001 as an endowment from the Sawiris family to be one of the first national donors dedicated to social development, addressing many important issues facing the Egyptian society such as poverty, unemployment, health and education. Over the course of 18 years, the Foundation has succeeded in providing a number of pioneering initiatives and programs aimed at achieving comprehensive and sustainable development in Egypt in partnership with governmental, private, and civil authorities. These initiatives have resulted in the creation of thousands of real jobs, high-quality education, improved health care services, and increased access to basic services for communities.

The mission of El Gouna Film Festival is to showcase a wide variety of films for a passionate and knowledgeable audience and to foster better communication between cultures through the art of filmmaking. Its goal is to connect filmmakers from the region with their international counterparts in the spirit of cooperation and cultural exchange. The Festival is committed to the discovery of new voices and strives to be a catalyst for the development of cinema in Egypt and the Arab world, particularly through its industry segment, CineGouna Platform. The Festival is held annually in the marvelous Egyptian Red Sea resort town of El Gouna. Its 3rd edition will take place from September 19 to 27, 2019.