The "Heart is the Language" Initiative is one of 15 initiatives that were implemented as part of the project “Simulating Egyptian Transition; Realizing Egypt’s Vision 2025” (SET-5), by the German NGO CRISP and its local counterpart Center for Development Services (CDS). The project built capacities among young people from 15 different governorates and empowered them to design and implement projects on community level, aiming for social change. In the a nationwide competition the initiative "Heart is the Language" won the prize for best youth initiative in Egypt in 2018, by The Ministry of Youth and Sports.
As part of our project “Simulating Egyptian Transition; Realizing Egypt’s Vision 2025”, that is aiming for peaceful co-existence and active citizenship, several initiatives in different governorates were developed. We assisted the participants to make their ideas more concrete. Thus, we jointly developed theories of change, defined the points of intervention and anticipated the risks of implementation. Due to several capacity building activities the participants had the chance to shape their ideas and enhance them and finally actually implement them with our support.
"The Heart is the Language" initiative was implemented to respond to the needs of Egyptians with hearing impairment. The project is supported by CRISP as well as our Egyptian Partner The Center for Development Services (CDS), the World Youth Ambassadors Group, and Misr Foundation for Health and Sustainable Development, based on the recommendations of the Minister of Youth and Sports/ Ashraf Subhy in partnership with EYOUTH.
The “Heart is the Language” focused on people living with hearing loss, primarily to address the lack of support services for this target group in Egypt. The main goal was to raise awareness about hearing impairment and highlight the importance of bridging the gap between the target group and the rest of the community. Aiming for further integration of people living with hearing loss, the implementers perceived learning sign language as a primary step in the right direction by implementing sign language workshops for 17 volunteers.
The initiative received first Place in a Nationwide Competition for Youth Initiatives during the competition’s closing ceremony event, the implementers were announced and asked on stage to receive the winning shield given by the Minister of Youth and Sports, Dr. Ashraf Subhy. The closing ceremony of the competition was held at the Civic Education Center. As well as a large number of the Ministry's leaders including the Director of the Civic Education and Youth Leadership Department, Professor Qadria Talha.
