Egyptian Company Supports Palestinian Students in Egypt

Egyptian education company and student-recruitment platform, Educatly, organized an initiative among its employees and connections to raise donations and help Palestinian students in Egypt amidst the war in Gaza.

“When the war broke out in Gaza on 7 October 2023, we wanted to help somehow but did not know how to. Mohmmed El Sonbaty, the company’s CEO, with the help of a friend, managed to get contact information for Palestinian students studying in universities all over Egypt,” Human resources and talent manager at Educatly, Seham Essam told Egyptian Streets.

Essam and employees at Educatly started telling their families and friends about the fundraising. The company’s employees managed to collect more than EGP 500,000 (USD 10,643) with over 100 people donating.

“We had access to a list of several Palestinian students in Egypt, and we managed to get in contact with and help 80 students,” Essam said. “Eight co-workers of mine volunteered to help, and we, collectively, went through the list and called the students to hear about their current situation and assess the degree to which they need financial help.”

Educatly managed to contact Palestinian students in Cairo, Arish, Minya, and Mansoura. Students were provided with funding ranging from EGP 3,000 (USD 63.76) to EGP 5,000 (USD 106.27), depending on the case.

When the recent events in Gaza began, 6,000 Palestinian students were studying at Egyptian universities, 4,000 of whom were from Gaza. The Egyptian Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research agreed, in November 2023, to postpone the payment of tuition fees for the 2023-2024 academic year for Palestinian students from Gaza in Cairo.

Higher education Palestinian students in Egypt, along with any Palestinian abroad, had to endure being away from their families in Gaza, praying for their safety, and barely getting by. With the deaths and outage of the internet and all means of communication in Gaza, Palestinians abroad could not contact or reach their families and friends in the war-stricken city, which left Palestinian students with no funding to pay for rent or living expenses.

The 20-year-old medical student from Gaza, Saja Samy, is studying in Egypt. When Israel started striking Gaza, she was overwhelmed by fear.

“I can’t think straight. I don’t know where my family is. I don’t know if they’re okay,” Samy said to AFP.

Essam stated that some students received monthly allocations, and others were not. She emphasized that it depends on the case and how dire the situation is, using the example, of three siblings studying in Egypt who Educatly are in contact with monthly.

“We could not have a set amount of funding to be sent monthly to students,” Essam told Egyptian Streets. “Whenever we collect enough donations, we contact the students and send them aid directly.”

Anyone can donate to help Gaza students in Egypt, and Educatly is still continuously working on collecting donations to provide and help more students.