The French University in Egypt was the country ’s national champion for the second consecutive year. It took part in the world cup championship which was organized in Berlin on October 5-6 2009. The national champions of 40 countries were selected from a total of 1400 Universities taking part in the contest. More than 2100 participants took part in this event, including hundreds of judges from the most renowned companies. The Egyptian team was one of the 16 semi-finalists, then was one of the 4 finalists and became the world cup International champion ahead of India (2nd), Canada (3rd), Germany (4th). Ahead of the judges verdict the audience had already, through its applause, picked the winners to be. The team presented 6 of its 13 ongoing projects. The support to Azbakia book vendors was organised th rough the organisation of book fairs, the introduction of new permanent distribution channels in coffee shops, a web site …. Based on the same approach, a project supports the distribution of dates grown in the Baharia Oasis to national retailers and exporters and the sale of date cores to a cosmetics company. As for the rice straw project it tackled the black cloud problem, a health hazzard for the greater Cairo population. The project, aimed at reducing the practice of burning rice straw th rough promoting economic uses for rice straw, such as mus room cultivassions on beds of rice straw and the manufacture of handmade rice straw paper artefacts by deaf and mute designers. Three other projects targeted El Waraq island, a poor and isolated population. Two of them promoted new activities based on sewing and raising rabbits. The last one, extremely ambitious, combined two objectives, reduce the pollution due to animal and human waste and generate a local source of energy. The aim is to create, on a land given to the team, a bakery fueled by a biogas reactor (generated with the local waste) to as to reduce the island’s dependance on other sources of energy.
This diversity of sound projects aimed at fragile populations led to a largely deserved victory. These projects are fully in line with the SIFE mission : help disadvantaged communities and protect the natural environment th rough micro-business activities and the provision of assistance to small entrepreneurs and, at the same time, put a sustainable team into place that ensures continuity of the projects. The presentation itself, be it the videos, the strong analytical capabilities, the oral presentation skills or the answer to questions was technically perfect and enthused with the enthusiasm, energy and sincerity of the students. We extend our thanks to the whole team led by Moetaz Helmy, student leader and to Dr Nicolas Antheaume, Myriam Raymond and Dr Amr Osman, their faculté advisors.
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